The Art of Integrity
by Airame Phantom
Summary: Sequel to The Art of Deception, it begins two years after Danny's escape and about three years of a new ghostly invasion gone right. Amity Park and the world has fallen into the hands of Vlad and Walker. Who will stop this accomplished plan this time?
1. Chap 1

A/N: This is the sequel you've all been waiting for! Oh yeah! Yes, the title sucks big time! But here goes Anyway!

* * *

**The Art of Integrity**

**Chapter One**

**(Danny's POV)**

**

* * *

**

Night time. Amity Park is always an adherence to all types of crime at night. Ghost attacks have worn the place down. Humans, or living beings, have to deal with the ghosts themselves for two years.And every now and then their plans would fail and just as they were about to give up, someone would help them. He's not normal, they know. There is something about him that seems a bit peculiar. But they accept him as their mysterious hero, never in sight, but always there tolend an invisible, and some times intangible, hand. Many reports have been made. Sightings being spread. And even a description. They say he's half-ghost, or full-ghost, no one knows for sure. They say his hair is as silver as the moon, and his eyes the most vivid green. But he, himself, has been known to hide within the shadows, or just plain not being there. To everyone in the city, he is known by many names. Some call him simply the Ghost-Boy; others, Hybrid, and other's still, call the teenager Phantom. His true name is still a mystery. Amity's greatest ghost-hunters have been said to know who he is, but they withhold their information from the city, the state, the world.

No part of this planet is safe. The ghosts have ruined everything. The city itself is in almost ruin. Part of houses are still in top-shape, but others remain broken down. Everywhere you go you seem to be followed by everything it's been through. Misery fills every corner and crevice and heart. Power is often out of reach and the citizens remain in darkness in their homes, afraid to step out into the outside where the sun shines. Children are taught everything their parents know. Some times, they never learn to read and write. All of this in two years. But the people know this started before that. It started three and a half years ago.

The ghosts had begun to infiltrate the city. With only a few ghost-hunters in the area, it was hard to keep the place stable. For nearly a year everything seemed safe. But the people didn't know that the government was beginning to crumble. The ghosts had vanished because the ghosts had gone and hit the city right where it hurts: at the heart of it's organization. None of the states new what was going on. No one knew. And just when everything hit rock bottom and the government called, not for back-up, but surrender, suddenly everyone knew what was to come. At the head of everything - cities, states, countries- Walker, Vladimir Masters, and a few others that are not well known, became, not government officials, but more like kings. They began to rule the continent with an iron fist. And with many portals popping up everywhere around the world, courtesy of Vlad Masters, soon the whole world was brought down to their knees.

Now, everyone cowers in fear of these few people. And everywhere, in every city, there's always someone there to take care of business should some random people come out of place. Like the saying goes: a place for everything and everything in its place. The city of Amity Park is no different. People are to be in their houses by ten o'clock each night, no exceptions unless they are called upon by someone that is their superior. And you know how the world always wanted to be equal? No colors count? No ethnicities? We got our wish, but it's nothing like what we expected. Everyone is an inferior. Everyone gets the same amount of food. Everyone is nothing. No one matters. And Amity Park has it's superior patrolling streets every night and day, making sure everything is okay. Amity Park has Samantha Manson, previously known as Sagira. Anyone who's anyone knows that if you call her by any other name that's Sam, then you'll certainly get it.

But even with this warrior of strength and stealth patrols the streets, beneath the roads that pave the city, there's a rebellion working it's way through the system. There are rumors going around that the Phantom is working to aid these warriors against the frightful rulers of this broken down world, but there's no way to know for sure. They also say that a certain past ghost-hunter was the started of this guild and is said to steal ghost weapons. Another rumor has it that the ghost hunters Maddie and Jack Fenton's daughter, Jasmin Fenton, is an ally of this group and helps to get supplies for the building of new weapons from her parents lab. This, however, has not been confirmed. The name of this group is H.Y.B.R.I.D.S., named after one of the names given to the ghost-boy that is said to be the good guy against this horrid system. H.Y.B.R.I.D.S. stands for:

**H**elping  
**Y**our fellow  
**B**rethren to  
**R**id  
**I**tself of this  
**D**estruction of moral  
**S**tanding

The currently known names of the people in the H.Y.B.R.I.D.S. allegiance are consistent of: Paulina Sanchez, Tucker Foley, Valerie Grey, and Dash Baxter. The people who are in close observation are Jasmine Fenton, and the elusive Phantom. All in all, Amity Park's Sam Manson believes it's all a hoax.

As for me, well, I think otherwise. I've seen this group plan. I've seen their intricate blue-prints for new devices and weapons. I've seen how they work. And I know that they stand a chance. Jasmin is the provider of equipment. Valerie plans out many of their rebellions against Vlad, Walker, and others. Tucker and Dash help to make the weapons. Paulina is always the one to create some sort of distraction. Believe it or not, the girl has gotten tough. Her hair's been cut in a crafty kind of way. She looks more built up with primitive muscle on her arms and abdomen. This girl's definitely lost her girly touch. And Valerie, she hasn't lost her leadership abilities. I've seen some plans fail, and ever since the humans just gave up, it's been up to just this group of six teenagers to help bring this world back to where it used to be. As for me, well, the elusive Phantom, as they call me, tries to help any way he can. Some times that means lending Jazz an invisible or intangible hand. And somehow, every time I do, she knows it's me. And she knows exactly, almost exactly, where I am and who I am. There are times when I actually think she remembers me. But I know that's impossible.

Besides, I've still got a target. And that target is on the move again. Flying and landing on another roof, I catch sight of Sam again. She's running now. I need to keep up with her or lose her all together. Wait, she's chasing someone. "Stop!" she shouts, running. She's fast. Searching ahead, I now see who it is. My eyes widen. It's Jazz. She's holding something bulky and it's wearing her down. She's breathing hard, trying to find a way to escape. I grin. Time to spring into action. flying at break-neck speed, I quickly swoop down from the roof-top and grab hold of Jazz. She doesn't move or anything, just let's herself be carried. In a split-second, right before Sam's very eyes, I turn us invisible.Before long, we're out of sight. Jazz is wearing a hazmat suit like Maddie's, but this one is black and you can see her hair. She's about nineteen now, I haven't been paying much attention to the time anyway. Some times, I don't even know how old I am.

"It's past curfew," I murmur as I turn intangible and phase her down beneath the streets into the now-never-used sewage systems.

"I...know," she pants into my chest. "I needed to do this now...though." Setting her down onto the old stone floor, I turn around to go back onto the surface. "Wait," she says. I stop, but do not turn to her. "Please," she continues on. "You need to help us. We can't do this alone. You're one of us. It's almost an obligation. We-"

"You don't need someone like me," I step in, cutting her off. "I've seen what you guys can do. You're better off without me."

"We're not good enough," she says. "You needn't fear us. All we want is someone else to join. There aren't enough of us. We need more allies in high places. Please, Danny."

I freeze, my eyes widen, my inside turn to ice. "What?" I ask her, not believing my ears.

"Please, Phantom, we need your help," she says. I turn to her now, grasp her shoulders and shake them.

"No, you didn't call me Phantom," I state firmly. "Jazz, you didn't call me that. What did you call me?"

"I'm not Jazz," she says. "And I didn't call you anything, Phantom." I see fear in her eyes, confusion. Letting go, I take a few steps back. Is she...was she remembering? "Phantom, do..." she starts.

"I'll think about it," I say, and quickly turn and go intangible, flying up back onto the surface before she can say another word.

_Someone was beginning to remember._

* * *

E/N: I hope you liked it as your first chapter! Yes, the title sucks, I'm sorry about that, but I couldn't find a better one! It's not my fault! 


	2. Chap 2

A/N: Ah, an Up-date.

* * *

**The Art of Integrity**

**Chapter Two**

**

* * *

**

Danny flew out of the sewers and landed on a broken down home on the roof. He kicked at a random stone and listened as it clanked to the floor below. He tugged at his hair with frustration, then let his arms dangle back at his sides. Sitting down, he pulled his knees up and hugged them, thinking. She knew, somehow, she must know. He didn't care if it was sub-consciously. The point was that somewhere, he didn't know where, someone really could be remembering him right now. Jazz came that close, he noticed, to still keeping a memory of him. Well, why not see if more people remember him too? He slunk down and sat on the roof, thinking still. If he could get others to know him again, maybe that would snap their memory. But even if they do remember, what difference will it make? Will it give him hope. Danny shook his head, getting rid of that theory. He looked up at the full moon. It looked almost as if it were stained with blood. "Hope," he murmured. "is an empty feeling that gives people false salvation." The moon seemed to almost reply. Danny felt something whistle right past his ear at break-neck speed. He watched as it impaled a wall farther up.

He heard a small scream from inside the house. He stood quickly, and was about to run up to see if anyone had gotten hurt when a voice sounded from behind him. "Don't move." The voice was cold, unmoving, definitely familiar. Danny stood up straight, not daring to turn around just yet. His arms dangled at his sides freely. His head was cocked to one side slightly and he shifted his weight onto his left leg in a confident pose.

"Someone may be hurt," he said calmly, evenly.

"It only hurts ghosts," the voice replied. "You're not going anywhere."

Danny smiled and finally began to turn. He only got so far as a half-turn, but at least now he could see her, when the voice told him to stop. "Not another movement," she snarled. Danny smirked.

"Afraid, Samantha?" he asked, grinning at the dark-haired girl in black. She was holding what looked like a gun, except it was different. This was an ecto-gun, smaller and more portable, but still an ecto-gun. It also looked like it has had some up-grades. Thus, the musket ball that had been shot at him. "You lost accuracy."

"I missed on purpose," Sam said. Her violet eyes locked onto his vivid green ones. "Go human, Daniel."

"My, my, a little harsh, don't you think?" Danny said, but he obeyed, raising his hands in the air to show he was unarmed. "Why don't you just finish me off now? Haven't you been dying to do so lately?"

"I have, but it's not my style to defeat someone who is unarmed," she said. "Even if he does have ghost powers."

"Unarmed? What are you talking about? I have two arms!" Danny laughed, waving his arms slightly. Sam scowled further and narrowed her eyes. Danny immediately stopped laughing, his facial expression became serious and hard. "Okay, no more fooling around then," he murmured. Sam began to take a step towards. For every step she took towards him, he took one back.

"Daniel, don't move," she scolded. "I don't want to have to shoot you."

"What makes you think you won't miss?" Danny asked. Sam pressed further towards him, only to find he was walking back. "You do know I can just fly away at any moment I want, right?"

"But you won't. You know I never miss my target. I do believe you've found that out the hard way," Sam said, smiling thinly and she gazed upon the bandage around Danny's left arm. Danny frowned, not liking the thought of the memory. "It only grazed your arm because I was giving you a warning to not show your face ever again. You've been marked. No one cares about you."

"Marked or not," Danny said back. "I'm not going to leave this place." Being marked, Danny could be killed by anyone without punishment or fear of sentence. He was a target for anyone and everyone with a gun in hand. It was almost as if his own life was a bargain at times. He stepped back again.

"But if you come with me," Sam continued. "You can join us. You can become one of the superiors. Come on, Daniel, you don't have to keep up your stubborn personality. You have no hope of returning into the memories of others. They've all forgotten you, don't you see?"

"I don't join anyone who calls me Daniel, and yes, actually, I think I can return their memories," Danny said. Sam scowled at him.

"Don't you ever give up?" she asked him in a disgusted kind of way. Danny grinned.

"Nope," he said and, taking back the last remaining steps he could, let himself fall backwards, arms out-stretched. Sam's eyes widened and she ran to the edge where Danny had dropped down from. She gazed down. He was nowhere in sight. Stomping her foot on the roof, Sam cursed beneath her breath. Oh well, she would have another chance another time.

* * *

"He was so strange," Jasmin murmured as she handed Tucker and Dash what she had brought. They were down in a cavern in the underground sewage facility. It was like a maze down there. You could get lost easily and this place was very hard to find. They had memorized the way, of course. Tucker glanced at her and told Dash what to do with the supplies.

"Of course he would be strange," Tucker told the girl.

"But he was ultra strange," Jazz insisted. "He kept talking about me calling him something other than Phantom. And he kept insisting on calling me Jazz."

"That's not so strange," Valerie, who was sitting at a make-shirt table drawing something with her back to the talking duet, said. "So he doesn't like the name Phantom and likes to call you Jazz. it is a shortening of your name, you know."

Jasmin looked at her. "Yes, but still..."she said.She sighed and looked at Tucker. No one could ever argue with Valerie, they always ended up losing their point. Tucker shrugged and smiled sheepishly before going to help Dash with working with the new supplies. Jasmin sighed again and crossed her arms. She walked over to the mouth of the cavern and gazed into the darkness of the sewers. "Something feels wrong about him."

"Are you talking about me?" a voice echoed. Every dropped what they were doing and stood at attention. The voice came from an adjoining tunnel that lead off of the cavern behind Jasmin. The said girl turned and ran towards where Paulina was. The girl was practicing her aim with an ecto-gun and human paralyzer. She grabbed the paralyzer gun and aimed at the silhouetted figure that was walking in through the tunnel, stepping into the light. Tucker and Dash both picked up an ecto-gun and another paralyzer gun. Valerie got ready with a few shurikens she'd coated with a special ectoplasmic, anti-ghost tonic.

The teen came out of the shadows and crossed his arms. He grinned. "I don't appreciate that."

"Phantom!" all the teens cheered.

* * *

E/N: Hope you liked the chapter. And I know Danny was never actually trapped by Sam since he is half-ghost. I know that, Danny knows that, and Sam knew that.


	3. Chap 3

A/N: Alright! I found lyrics to go with this story! YEAH!

* * *

**The Art of Integrity**

**Chapter Three**

* * *

_"Though I'm right, I don't think I'll win this fight  
But I'm trying though it's ripping me inside  
Just in case that I'm taking up your space  
I'll be feeling too whatever's left inside_..."

**

* * *

**

Before long weapons had been dropped to the ground and the teens went rushing up to Danny, who, by all means, looked a bit terrified and excited at the same time. What was he doing? Involving himself in something he didn't want to be a part of. Why? Because he felt this was the only way they could really bring things back to normal. How? By standing up to everyone who's ever brought them down. Why is he answering his own questions? Because he's a loser!

Sighing at his thoughts, Danny gazed at the happy and excited faces that were speaking quickly to him in both chorus and out of sync. Everyone except Valerie, anyway. "One at a time!" he exclaimed. Silence was immediately brought on. Danny looked and studied each face. Tucker no longer wore his red beret. Instead, he had ear phones around his neck, the cord leading down into something in his pants pocket. His style had changed greatly, actually. His shirt was black and sleeveless. His jeans were torn and black as well. But the boy still had a happy gleam in his eyes that made Danny feel like smiling himself, but he fought it off. His glance then landed on Dash. The boy looked more hardened and experience. Danny could tell he'd been through some rough stuff judging by the fact his shirt had only one sleeve while the other was torn. Dash also had a little scar right above his left eyebrow. His jeans were surprisingly intact. The boy was as finicky as ever. Danny's gaze then traveled towards Paulina. As he had stated before in previous chapters, she was the one who changed most. Her appearance and dressing styles had been greatly affected. Her hair was crudely cut short, not passing her shoulders. Her features had matured and she was built up with primitive muscle. She wore a pink belly-shirt. Actually, the shirt had been ripped into a belly-shirt. She wore skin-tight black shorts that went just past her knees a few inches. Valerie hadn't changed a bit. She looked serious, but giddy all the same. Her clothes style hadn't changed at all except she wore shorts like Paulina's instead of a skirt. And Jazz. She looked a bit Goth now, wearing a black hazmat suit with the sleeves cut at the elbow and the head part gone along with some of the collar.

"So, you're going to help us?" Jasmin asked expectantly, her hands clasped.

"I might as well," Danny replied, nodding feebly. Cheers erupted from everyone except Valerie, who sustained her silence. She seemed to be analyzing him and he didn't like it one bit. "Quiet!" The cheering stopped. "I'm not going to lead anything and don't expect much. I'm only here to help because I've got some unfinished business with a certain person known as one of the superiors."

"But you're going to help and that's all that matters," Paulina said in her thickly accented voice. She wasn't as oblivious as before either. Danny grinned.

"I guess," he said. "But maybe we should ask you leader first. Miss Gray?"

"You can help us, we're in great need of it in our next attempt to bring everything back to normal, I guess," Valerie said. "But it's going to be pretty tough. Plus, I think you may want to get to know the team."

"I know plenty," Danny replied simply. Valerie said nothing, only nodded once and went back to the make-shift table she'd been sitting at. Danny frowned. There was something bugging her. Was it his presence? Maybe that was another sign of her remembering. Could it be? I mean, it's not like she liked him during ghost form before. It's only fair that if she remembers Phantom, then she'll first begin to feel a little bit on her guard around him. It sounded logical, right?

"Phantom, you must help us to understand ghosts better. we know a lot, but we still need to know a few things. Our weapons are still short of working perfectly." Paulina grabbed Danny's arm as she talked, leading him towards where another make-shift table had been placed. On it were various pieces of metal and other electronics. Tucker and Dash both were putting things together and everything.

"What do you need to know?" Danny asked.

"First off," Tucker said, picking up a beaker filled with something. "We need to know what will or will not hurt the ghost.

"And?" Danny asked, backing up slightly. Tucker grinned mischievously.

"We're not going to test it on you," Tucker said. "But the Fentons have this stuff and it's supposedly going to work on ghosts to burn them or reduce them to goop or something like that. Since some inventions by them don't exactly work, we need to know if this will. Is there any way you can help?"

"Yeah, there's got to be some way you can get us some ghost captives," Dash added.

"We're not getting captives!" Valerie shouted suddenly, breaking through the air thick with tension like a blade. Everyone stared at her. She glared at them all in return. Danny blinked. "That's not what we do. We're not going to turn into the people we most hate no matter what. You understand?" She turned back to what she was doing without letting anyone answer and began to write again.

"What's up with that?" Danny whispered.

"Valerie's dad was taken captive about a year ago," Tucker said quietly.

"She has not heard from him a very long time and is worried," Paulina added.

"I heard her old man is dead, but there's no way to know for sure. She's been like that ever since he's capture," Dash remarked. Danny looked from saddened face to saddened face, then finally at Valerie.

"I've been down that road," he whispered, more to himself than to anyone else. Though Paulina heard him, she made no comment.

* * *

Night soon became day and the team decided sleep was in great need. None of them dared climb out of the sewers, especially not Jasmin. She was afraid that the superior may have informed everything that she had been marked along with all the others in the H.Y.B.R.I.D.S. If that happened, she was sure to be faced with close encounters with other superiors now in the area. So all them made themselves comfortable down there after sealing every entrance into the sewer shut and unable to be opened. Light didn't pour in at all, but thanks to the candles that were placed around the cavern, it was not a problem at all. But the candles were almost all turned off now that the team was ready to sleep. The cavern was only lit dimly. 

Warmth and getting comfortable was no problem either. Blankets were something the team was not lacking and there was enough for about three a person, enough to make a make-shift bed for you to sleep comfortably. At this moment Valerie was already lying down for some rest. Tucker and Dash were snoring softly. Paulina was curled into a tight ball off to one side, sleeping soundly. Jasmin looked asleep, but Danny wasn't so sure. Valerie looked at the still awake teen. "You getting any sleep, Phantom?" she asked.

"Danny," he said. She cocked an eye brown at him. He looked at her from his position at the mouth of the tunnel. He had his arms crossed over his chest and was leaning back on the wall. He grinned. "Call me Danny."

"Well, Danny, are you going to get any sleep?" she repeated.

"I'm not really tired. That's an up-side to being a ghost," he said. Valerie seemed to snort with some amusement at the word 'ghost'. Danny didn't know why, but dismissed the gesture.

"Right," she murmured and laid down. "Well, since you're going to be up, I suggest you keep watch." She turned her back to him then.

"Will do." He nodded and looked back into the darkness. At the end of the tunnel was a soft glow from a torch that was lit. There were torches lighting in every tunnel for some sense of direction. Danny looked around the cavern at the sleeping team, then sighed and sat down Indian style. He hadn't gotten a normal amount of sleep in a very long time. He hadn't been in human form for a very long either. He wondered what would happen if he... "I'd be out like a light," he murmured, crossing his arms over his chest and answering his own silent question. He closed his eyes and leaned his head back against the wall, thinking deeply.

There was a shuffle of fabric against fabric, but Danny didn't stir. There was the sound of a few footsteps and then a rock being kicked accidentally. at that, Danny's eyes snapped open and he slipped his feet beneath him. He had one hand on the ground while the other was on the wall behind him and was in a half-crouched position, one leg slipped out across the floor for him to be able to probably literally spring into action while his other leg was beneath him. His eyes narrowed and glowed viciously in the semi-darkness. He could see that someone was silhouetted on the other side of the tunnel at the opposite entrance/exit. His teeth clenched as the person came closer. As the dim light caught up with him, he began to see no threat. It was only Jasmin. He sighed and relaxed his tense body, letting the hand on the wall to slip down to his side. He pushed up from the floor and stood up, one fist on his waist.

"Sorry I scared you," Jasmin murmured, turning on one of the candles and walking towards Danny with it.

"I've learned a thing or two," he responded. "about fear, I mean. It's only another cowardly word for apprehension. And according to me, I was not scared. I was only put on guard because of the noise you made."

Jasmin laughed quietly into her hand. "You're just full of it, aren't you?" she said mockingly, poking his chest with her finger once. Danny swatted her hand away gently, the hardened expression never leaving his face. She stopped laughing and the smile left her face. Danny crossed his arms again and looked at the floor. She sighed. "What made you change your mind? About helping us?" she asked.

"You needed help," Danny said. "I felt compelled to do so. My mind gave me no choice."

"That's not it," Jasmin whispered. Danny looked at her and green eyes met aqua eyes. His mouth opened a crack and it looked as if he was about to say something, but he kept his silence. He frowned. "There's something else, isn't there? Something important. The unsettled business you're supposed to finish. It has something to do with that too, right? But I have a feeling that's not it either. You have something else you need to do. What is it?"

"I'm just the person playing the role of the avenger and protagonist in this story, Jazz. Nothing more," Danny said, turning his face away from the girl and taking a step away from her as well.

"Jazz," she murmured. "You called me that for the first time last night. I've never told you my name, but yet you called me a shortened form of it as if you've known for much longer than just the few weeks since the first time you helped me."

"It's an old time habit," Danny replied simply, having to make his brain work in over-drive to come up with all these lies and half-truths.

"And you said to play the role of the avenger. What ahs the superior done to you that you feel you need revenge?" she asked then.

"It's nothing important," Danny said. "Nothing you need to know."

"Danny, I'm sure it would help if we all knew," Jasmin said. She called him Danny. So she wasn't asleep after all.

"You're not going to stop insisting, are you?" Danny asked, sighing in defeat. If he knew Jazz, she wasn't the type to give up. She would just stand up and try again and again no matter how annoying it got to be.

"No," she said. though he could tell from the sparkle in her eye she was feeling smug, he knew she was trying to act serious and mature when she really wanted to do a victory dance.

"Fine," Danny murmured. "But I'm only going to tell you if you promise not to tell anyone else."

"I promise then," Jasmin said.

"The superior," Danny said. "Samantha Manson. Let's just say we used to be tight. Then, everything just changed. It's like I didn't even know her anymore. She took my family away from me on a level no one can ever imagine. I guess it's not exactly revenge I want. I promised her that I'd never let her forget what she did to me. I'm going to keep my promise at all costs."

"You and Sam? Friends?" Jasmin asked incredulously. Danny nodded.

"Yeah," he whispered.

"But how did she take your family away from you?" she asked then.

"It's complicated, Jazz," Danny told her. "Just get some sleep. I don't really want to talk about it."

Jasmin's brows furrowed with some concern, but she nodded dejectedly. Danny watched as she stood and walked back over to her 'bed' and laid down. Then he turned back and leaned against the again, sighed, and looked out into the darkened tunnel. It hurt to know she didn't remember. It hurt to know she may never remember. But he didn't want to tell her everything for fear she may hurt herself in knowing that she didn't remembered too. It was hard to look at her and lie. But it would be harder to see her fighting an inward struggle to remember. Danny didn't want that. But the possibility of her remembering if he told her existed. But the risky was too great. He wouldn't dare do that to her. After another soft snoring joined the chorused, Danny slumped down against the wall and brought one knee up and leaned an arm carelessly over it.

"I wish," he whispered quietly, almost to himself. "I wish you would remember."

A certain girl, however, was not so much asleep as she appeared. Paulina Sanchez was very much awake and listening. She frowned in puzzlement, but made no signs of being awake. She merely shifted slightly and closed her eyes. She would have to tell her about this when everyone woke up.

* * *

E/N: YAY LYRICS! Well, the song 'When It Cuts' by Ill Niño does not belong to me. 


	4. Chap 4

A/N: Back-to-back up-date!

* * *

**The Art of Integrity**

**Chapter Four**

**

* * *

**

_"Yo no entiendo lo que es  
Everything is just a haze  
Yo no entiendo lo que es  
Everything is just a haze..."_

* * *

"I'm telling something's up with him," Paulina whispered. Danny had gone to do some patrolling of his own for awhile, leaving the team by themselves. Jasmin was working on her aim while Tucker and Dash had gotten back to work on the new weaponry. Valerie was listening to the girl without much notice. It was habit for Paulina to be yapping about the latest news. It had gotten to the fact where her words fell on deaf ears. "He said something about revenge on Sam, the superior. And he wished for Jasmin to remember something. It was so weird, Valerie."

"Paulina, leave the guy alone," Valerie groaned. "He's probably just babbling to himself. You know, like talking about past memories or something."

"He said Sam and him used to be friends." Now Paulina knew that would definitely get to Valerie. The said girl dropped her pencil and froze. Friends? That couldn't be. Was he a spy? To get their plans? Was everything an act to make them believe he was on their side? The pencil fell from her hand and rolled down the table to the floor with a semi-loud clank. Valerie's eyes were wide and she was motionless as thoughts went flying through her head. Tucker, Dash, and Jasmin all looked at her. "He said they sued to be tight friends," Paulina continued.

"Bastard!" Valerie shouted, standing up suddenly.

"Valerie? You okay?" Tucker asked, taking a few steps towards the girl. Valerie turned to them, then looked at Paulina.

"You better not be lying." There was a snarl in Valerie's voice that made Paulina so scared, she was frozen solid. Jasmin took a step towards the frozen girl and the angry one.

"Valerie, what is going on?" she asked, her voice having a sharp edge that made Paulina wince. The said girl took a few steps back.

"Don't move!" Valerie commanded. Paulina stood rooted to her spot now. "Jasmin, I know you were talking to Danny last night. What did he say?" Jasmin said nothing. She couldn't. She'd promised Danny that she wouldn't say anything. What had Paulina said to Valerie to make her so mad? "Jasmin, answer me," Valerie commanded firmly, her voice stern.

"I'm sorry, Valerie," Jasmin said slowly and quietly, but just as firmly as Valerie. She would not show this girl, younger girl, fear. "But I can't tell you anything."

"Why not?" Valerie asked, now angry. She started this group with Tucker's help. Jasmin should know that whatever information any of them grasp, it is delivered to either her or Tucker. No secrets can be kept in the dark for too long.

"Because I promised Danny I wouldn't tell anyone," Jasmin said. "Because I cannot let him down."

"You know just as well as everyone else here that secrets get out," Valerie said menacingly. "Either you tell me now, or I go find out for myself."

"But you don't know where Phantom is!" Tucker exclaimed.

"And it's day time outside. You'll get caught," Dash added. Valerie never took her eyes off of Jasmin's own. You could almost feel the air thick with tension.

"Just what is this all about?" Tucker asked then.

"Tucker, be quiet!" Valerie snapped. "I'm only going to ask one more time. Jasmin, what did Phantom tell you?"

"I would not be in my right to tell you anything. I'm sorry," Jasmin said, her voice soft. An ominous five seconds of silence passed before a loud clap was heard. Paulina gasped and put her hands over her mouth. Dash gawked at Valerie. Tucker, well, Tucker froze and held his breath. Jasmin didn't move. She had her face turned away from Valerie, eyes closed, teeth clenched. Her left cheek was red with not embarrassment, but from the force of the clap. Valerie had one hand up and to one side, having delivered a slap to the girl standing opposite her.

"Valerie," Tucker whispered, letting his breath out with a rush and speaking at the same time.

"I am tired of being deceived," Valerie murmured. She turned to the other group. "I'm going to look for Phantom. Don't leave and apprehend him if he gets back while I'm not here." Valerie grasped three shurikens and, making her hand into a fist, slid each shuriken between each finger. "If I'm caught, Tucker's leader." She had, also, an ecto-gun strapped to her waist-line. At least she was prepared.

"Valerie, don't-" but Tucker didn't finish the sentence. Valerie had bolted into a run towards the next sewer exit/entrance to get above ground. Tucker frowned, then rushed to Jasmin's side.

"Are you okay?" Paulina asked, putting one hand on the girl's shoulder. Jasmin put one hand to her cheek and opened her eyes. The red wasn't near fading yet, but at least the slight sting was almost gone. "I can't believe she did that. Vicious," Dash mumbled, coming up to Jasmin as well. Tucker, hands turned to fists, walked over as well.

"The odds are against Valerie up there," he remarked. "There is a 10 to one possibility she's going to get caught."

"That doesn't sound good," Dash noted aloud.

"They aren't," Tucker agreed.

"What do we do?" Paulina asked.

"We can't do anything except hope for the best," Tucker replied sadly.

"We need to wait for Danny," Jasmin whispered. The trio of team-mates looked at the girl. She was staring out into the darkness of the tunnel. Valerie was surely on ground now. Danny would be there to help her. He would make sure she didn't get caught...

...right?

* * *

There was a loud commotion on the streets that the H.Y.B.R.I.D.S. were not aware of. The sound of gun-shots echoed through the city, though, alerting a certain half-ghost. 

Danny stood at the far edge of the city, almost done making sure everyone was okay and lending an invisible hand to an old woman who was struggling to get into her sad-looking home. Now he stood on a roof, looking out to sea. How he envied the ocean. No one could ever tame it or claim it as their own. Vicious and free. Unlike himself. The years had worn him down, showed him things he never would have liked to know. Shown him fear, taught him that nothing ever stays perfect, that everything must come to an end. Then an echo caught his ear and his eyes widened. He whirled around towards the city he'd left behind, fearful.

Shouts. Gun-shots. Then a shrill scream that would ring forever in his ears.

_"Valerie."_

* * *

"That's enough!" shout one of the superiors. "She won't be moving for a while. I'm surprised she's still breathing." 

"Who is she, superior?" asked a hoarse male voice. A girl clad in black watched as the body in front of her stirred. She scowled with both surprise and annoyance.

"One of the H.Y.B.R.I.D.S.," the girl replied. "Just stay down!"

"She's the one named Valerie Ann Gray," another male voice replied.

"I know who she is," the girl said. "And I know how much she means to him. Take her away. Don't kill her. She may serve as something far important." The males, ghosts apparently, went over to the fallen body and picked Valerie up. She looked hurt and tired. Her clothes were ripped from some places and her hair was a mess. There were scratches on her arms. But the girl clad in black also looked as if she'd been in a struggle. Valerie had fought hard. The ghosts carried her away to a square-shaped design on the floor. They stood there and before long, the ghosts along with Valerie had disappeared. The girl in black looked around at up at the horizon. She saw someone on the roof of one building, but the sun was in her way and she only saw a dark figure. She stepped back to see if she could see the figure more clear. But when she looked up again, the figure was gone. Scowling, the girl walked over to the weapon Valerie must have dropped. She picked it up, turned tail, walked away, and disappeared around a corner.

As she left a new figure appeared where she'd picked up the weapon. His greens eyes were wide with shock. How could she have done that? His hands tightened into fists. Valerie was also marked. Why did she take her? She should have been killed on the spot. Was it mercy? "That's not your style, Samantha," he murmured angrily to himself. "What's your plan this time..."

* * *

_"And if you think you got the answer  
Well think again 'cause you know  
Better than this yourself  
So ask that question to yourself..."_

* * *

E/N: I loved this chapter. Anywho, the songs 'Lifeless...life' (first verse) nor 'Rebirth' by Ill Niño. 


	5. Chap 5

A/N: Finally! An up-date!

* * *

**The Art of Integrity**

**Chapter Five**

**

* * *

**

_"When it cuts, it cuts, it cuts hard  
And I  
__When it cuts, it cuts, it cuts hard  
And I  
When it cuts, it cuts, it cuts hard  
And I  
When it cuts, it cuts, it cuts hard  
And I die again _

Again..."

* * *

Danny, who still stood rooted to his spot for a few more seconds, looked around him and then finally turned intangible and phased through the ground, aiming to go back into the H.Y.B.R.I.D.S. hiding place. Maybe they could answer him why Valerie had even traveled up into the daylight. They all must know that isn't exactly the safest thing to do seeing as all of them were marked and could be killed on the spot. She should have never been up there... 

He traveled for about ten minutes before he found the correct tunnel and cavern. He turned visible and stepped onto the solid ground, watching for a second or two as his new team-mates paced and tapped their feet and drummed their fingers. "Why was Valerie above ground?" he said, instantly taking a couple of steps forward. He was stopped when Tucker, seemingly a bit more buff than he used to be, pushed him backwards, steering him against the wall, pinning him there by each wrist.

"Where is she?" he questioned harshly.

"Tucker!" Jasmine warned.

"Where is Valerie? Why isn't she with you?" Tucker continued. Danny looked at him in the eye: green eyes met pale green. His teeth clenched. "She went to look for you, where is she?"

"Phantom, where is Valerie?" Paulina asked softly.

"I don't understand!" Danny exclaimed. "She went up there to look for me? Why?"

"Because you're a back-stabbing piece of-"

"Tucker! Lay off him!" Dash cut in before he could finish. The bigger boy wrapped an arm around Tucker's neck and exerted some pressure to make him let go of Danny, who rubbed around his wrists, confused.

"She went...looking for me?" he asked, turning towards Jasmine as Dash finally let go of the thrashing Tucker Foley.

Jasmine nodded sadly. "Apparently she believed you were deceiving us," she whispered. "Someone over-heard our conversation last night and squealed."

"You guys think that after I, myself, have been betrayed would make me want to do that to you?" Danny asked, putting more edge in his voice than he wanted to. He saw Jasmine's shoulders begin to tremble slightly at his tone, seeing as it seemed he was talking to her more than to the others. He forced himself to sigh and continued rubbing around his wrists. He shook his head. "Forget it," he mumbled. "Valerie probably has no chance now..." Knowing the ghosts, Vlad, and Walker, she would surely be either spared so she could join the team of superiors, or be killed.

"What...What happened to Valerie?" Paulina tried again as Danny turned there back on them and began to walk away towards the darkened part of the cavern. She saw him pause, and his shoulders slump.

"Samantha got her," he whispered, lowering his gaze now to the ground and closing his eyes, his hands turned to fists. "Valerie was shaken down and taken hostage...I don't know what they're gonna do to her. But chances are, she hasn't a chance..."

"And how do you know that, huh?" Tucker shouted at him angrily. He managed to stay rooted to his spot, but Dash grasped his arms just in case.

"Shut up." Danny's whisper was a warning, not a request.

"No! How do you know she hasn't already...escaped? You don't know anything, do you? This is all just talk! You have no idea who or what you're talking about!" Tucker continued on with sheer and feeble force.

"Just shut up!" Danny shouted, tugging at his hair. He held his breath and let it out in a rush, bringing his hands down and half-turning to them. "Just shut up...Shut up!" Tucker froze, everyone froze. Danny's cheeks were tear-stained and rivulets of fresh tears ran down his face.

"Danny..." Jasmine whispered. Danny's expression hardened as he gazed into Tucker's also tear-filled eyes.

"You have no idea what I've been through," he said, his voice strained against breaking. "The things I've seen and experience. You. Have. No. I-dea." He add extra firmness to the word 'idea', splitting it by syllable. "This is harder for me than any of you! Don't judge me." Danny didn't waste any more time, he grew intangible and invisible, finally phasing through the walls and shooting straight up above ground and into the air.

"You went too far, Tucker," Dash mumbled. Tucker ripped himself free of Dash's grip and walked towards his usual spot in the cavern to work on some weapons.

"He asked for it," he said, wiping away the remnants of his tears with a quick swipe of his hand. Paulina sighed and walked over to where Valerie always sat to revise a few things she had written. Jasmine stood rooted to her spot, convinced the boy would be back soon, after he cleared his mind a little.

"Danny, please come back," she whispered quietly. This boy...this teenage boy...he showed more courage than any of them in a lifetime. She didn't know his whole story, but she did know that, in a way, he was alone in this big mess. But yet, she knew that even so, he just wanted to make things right. He wanted to fix things and make them the way they used to be. He wanted to forget what happened to him in hopes of returning to a normal way of life - not just for them, but for himself too. That was his goal, his way of life, his purpose and reason for existing in this cruel place. He needed that.

* * *

_Everything as falling apart right from the very core. Everything. Life itself seemed to be tumbling down the drain. And me, why am I here? Why is it everyone seems to hate me even though they don't even know me? Why?_

Danny sat on the water tower, just like earlier that day. His face was buried in his knees, his arms cradling his head. His shoulders shook and his sobs were quiet and fierce. Everything...everything...

He hadn't cried like this for a very long time. Had Valerie's capture switched back on his most inner emotions? Or was it Tucker's words? Or was it that his mind just couldn't take this anymore.

The pressure...

The push and pull...

The every struggle between life and death...

"I need to fix this," he whispered between his rapid breath intakes. "I need...to make things right, but...I can't. I can't do anything right anymore...Everything I ever knew is gone...everything..." He looked up, his tears glistening in the already darkening day. The sun began to make its descend beneath the blanket of the horizon and the moon began to make it's appearance in the dark sky. Danny's teeth clenched and he stood up, hands turned to fists and green eyes flashed. He made up his mind once and for all.

No more tears.

No one else is going to get hurt because of him.

No more running away. He rose one hand up and wiped away the few tears still in his eyes. This time, he was going to make sure everyone remained okay. And this time, he was going to make sure Samantha Sagira Manson paid for what she did.

* * *

_"I don't want to sound insane  
But I can't take the pressure  
Have you ever felt the same?  
Like you just need to run away..."_

* * *

E/N: I loved this chapter. I love every chapter! This is one of my favorite fics to write! Anywho, the songs 'When It Cuts' (first verse) and 'Have You Ever Felt' (second verse) belong to Ill Niño. 


	6. Chap 6

A/N: Up-date! Oh yeah! This has become my favorite fic! XD

* * *

**The Art of Integrity**

**Chapter Five**

**

* * *

**

_"I've seen your face  
In pictures with names  
That never were framed..."_

* * *

_"A hostage?"_

_"Yes. He will not resist the need to save her. I've known him long enough to be sure. If anything else, he is not a quitter. Somehow he's going to find a way to save her and with him will be the H.Y.B.R.I.D.S."_

_"Not a bad plan. But how do we know the punk will come to get her should he believe she is dead?"_

_"He doesn't need to think that. I'll work on it. Make him believe she is alive."_

_"Then what?"_

_"The only thing we can do. Kill them all. Try one last time to get him on our side, and if he does not agree, then he's done for."_

_"I like your style, Samantha."_

_"I've learned from the best. But I've got to admit, not even you would kill him, Vlad."_

_"The world has become mine. Some times I wonder if I even care."_

_"Then my plan it is..."_

_

* * *

_

It soon got dark in the city of Amity Park and with it came curfew. And with the vacant streets, came Samantha's patrolling hour and the only escape the H.Y.B.R.I.D.S. in their waking hours.

It was Jasmin's job to get the group supplies and even if Danny had not yet come back, she was not going to delay her duties. By midnight, the girl was already climbing out of the sewers and into the open, fresh air. The opening was closed tightly behind her and she began to make a run for it. Her dark clothes masked her mostly, but her red hair was a give away. But her speed gave her the advantage. She ran from shadow to shadow until she had reached what was left of the building once known as FentonWorks.

Jasmin ran around the back of the building and slipped through into the basement. The Fenton Ghost Hunters did not have any type of security, nor did they ever stay up this late anymore. Everyone was empty and dead quiet. Jasmin made sure her entry was just as silent. After all, she'd had enough practice to be able to do that. She landed in a crouched position, her boots making a very soft, almost unable to be heard thud. She glanced around, trying to get her vision used to the darkness.

Her eyes soon grew accustomed and off she was to gather as much as she could into the suitcase he carried around whenever on this type of excursion. She crept towards a box she caught sight of hidden beneath the table, thinking maybe it held small pieces of metal like screws and washers, but to her surprise, it was just junk. A bunchy of papers that looked as if someone had tried to burn some of them. There were old albums and pictures of her and the Fentons Maddie and Jack. There were some of Vladimir Master as well. Oh how disgusted she was to see an old college photo of her parents and Vlad. But as she continued to rummage silently, her eyes fell upon something more extraordinarily amazing.

It was a picture of her and Sam and Tucker and another boy. One that looked so familiar to her and yet...his image was far from her conscious memory. He had raven-black hair and gentle, soft blue eyes. He wore a white T-shirt with a red oval in the center of the chest section. His blue jeans looked worn, but still slightly intact. All in all, what struck her the most was a sense of déjà vu he gave her and the fact that his smile reminded her so much of someone else. Someone else that commonly known as Danny Phantom.

She traced a finger over his image, then looked at Tucker and her and Sam. She didn't remember when this picture was taken. Nor did she remember the last time she and Sam ever got along enough for this picture to be taken. She knew that Tucker had once been her friend. But they'd soon grown unused to each other and had eventually become rivals, then enemies. But even more she wondered who the other boy was. And why it felt as if she knew him.

As she continued to ponder the thought, her hand traveled up to the table edge. She began to stand up, but her weight against the table made it tip over and drop some of the items on it. She fell backwards and the table came tumbling along with her. It fell with a loud thud and the items with many clanks and the sound of glass breaking. This was bad! She got back up with a start, stumbling backwards a little bit before finally catching her balance again. She hoped no one had been awake what with all that noise! She stopped quickly turned towards the door that led to the staircase and then the kitchen. It was all silent. She sighed and wiped some of the beads of sweat that had formed on her brow during all of this. She walked back towards where everything had fallen and looked for the picture she'd dropped in her frenzy.

Many papers and spread about along with some ashes from the burnt pieces of papers. She located the half-burnt picture and stuffed it into her pocket for safe keeping. Then she went on to pick up the table and settling the box back under it before piling all it's contents back inside. Only then did a certain sound catch her ear. Once again Jasmin turned towards the door and continued to listen for any more sounds. She stood from her crouched position took a couple of steps back before the sounds finally made sense. Foot steps! The Fentons must have awakened!

Jasmin ran for the opening from the lab to the outside and jumped onto a table to make the climb less time-consuming. But just as she was halfway out of the basement, a hand was wrapped around her ankle, pulling her down. A yelp escaped her throat, catching the ear of a certain half-ghost that was flying around, doing his own patrol of the city.

Danny quickly flew towards the sound and caught sight of Jasmin's body being pulled down.

"How dare you!" called a loud booming voice perfectly known to Danny as his father.

"Jack, hurry!" Maddie's voice added. No more did he hear the sounds than Sam did. The girl made a chase towards the sound too, but was too late. Danny had already grabbed hold of Jazz's hand just as she were about to get pulled back into the room by the hands now around her waist and ankles.

"Danny!" the girl exclaimed as she grasped his hands with her own.

"Hold on, Jazz," Danny murmured. Now this had been turned into a tug-of-war in a situation of life-or-death!

"Phantom let go of her this instant!" Sam's voice rang now as she closed in as well.

"Sam, stay out of this!" Danny shouted to her. He went down on one knee and whispered to Jazz, "I'm gonna turn you intangible and fly you out of here, just hold on."

"I said to let go of her!" Sam shouted again just as Danny was about to turn Jazz intangible. Sam automatically pulled out an ecto-gun and pulled the trigger, not bothering to take aim. The beam grazed Danny's shoulder. The boy screamed out suddenly, but managed to turn Jasmin intangible. The girl felt a cold sensation wrap around her as she went right through her parents' grasps and into Danny's alone. Danny shot an invisible, shocked glare towards Sam before pulling Jazz into his arms to fly them back to the cavern. "Don't worry," he whispered into Jazz's ear.

"Phantom!" Sam shouted, putting away the gun as Danny and Jazz both disappeared. She kicked at the ground. Escaped again! Then, taken grasp of everything, she herself was shocked. Her hands trembled, but she got control of herself. "You Fentons better lock up now! I don't want anything else involving you two to happen any time this night, got that?"

There was a brief yes and sorry answer before everything went as silent as night again. Sam's hands still trembled and her thoughts raced, but she at least had control of her tongue and body now.

* * *

Danny flew Jazz back underground. His arm flared with pain at the gash Sam's gun had inflicted upon him. But he ignored it as best he could. Jazz's weight, however, did not make it any better, though. It still hurt like hell. 

Finally, he could take the pain no longer and collapsed. He fell down to the ground of the sewer, Jazz coming down along with him. The girl gave a small shout as he body came in contact with the stone floor, but she quickly took charge of herself and crawled quickly over to Danny's body. He lay on the ground, grasping his shoulder, his eyes closed against the pain there. His teeth were clenched and bared slightly as well.

"Danny?" she asked quietly. "Danny, what's wrong?" She had been so scared she hadn't taken the time to notice the fact that Sam had fired at him. She didn't know what was wrong until she noticed the red and green mixture of blood and ectoplasm bleed through his silver-colored gloves. He groaned.

That had been no regular beam. The pain was spreading through his whole body. Why? Then the thought crossed his mind, "It only hurts ghosts."

But he couldn't revert back to human form now! He just couldn't! Not in front of Jazz! It would be way hard to explain how he was human too!

His mind was giving him mis-information. It was as if it was back to when everything was back to normal and Jazz didn't know his secret. As if his own memory were being messed with so that it would block out anything of what was going on now so that he wouldn't want to go into human form. Then the beam would take it's toll on him and kill him from the inside out because he wouldn't go out of ghost form.

Jazz continued to try and get an answer from him, but nothing worked. She tried talking to him, asking him questions, but he wouldn't respond. "Danny!"

* * *

_"What are you waiting for?  
You will never get away  
What are you waiting for?  
You will not get away..."_

* * *

E/N: The songs 'Unframed' (first verse) and 'Letting Go' (second verse) belong to Ill Niño. 


	7. Chap 7

A/N: UP-DATE! And guess what? I'm gonna give you a link at the end for something so be ready!

* * *

**The Art of Integrity**

**Chapter Seven**

**

* * *

**

_"Crawling in my skin,  
__This wounds they will not heal..."_

_

* * *

_

Jasmin's voice rang throughout the many tunnels of the sewers like a siren through empty space. It came to the cavern where the H.Y.B.R.I.D.S. were currently practicing aim and anxiously waiting for Jasmin's return to get started on a few new weapons the two males had in mind. But their anxiety was answered to quickly by the sound. Tucker was the first to hear it. He looked up from the blue-prints he was looking at and turned towards the mouth of the cavern. His eyes narrowed. A shot of plasma echoed slightly as Paulina tried out her aim like she always did. Tucker put a finger to his lips and hissed. "SHHH!"

Paulina and Dash looked at him. Tucker's eyes were glued to the mouth of the tunnel, but no other sound had come just yet. "What is it?" Dash inquired softly, his hand snaking towards a plasma gun sitting on the table nearby.

"A...scream," Tucker answered him, then his eyes widened as another sound came. This time it sounded very familiar. He turned to Dash and locked his eyes onto his. "It's Jasmin!"

* * *

"Danny, please!" Jasmin pleaded. Tears now fell from her eyes at the sight. Danny struggled with keeping his form true to his ghostly half, but was failing. His mind was giving him incorrect conclusions and sights. His mind was, as said before, blocking out everything he knew had happened since Jazz had found out about his powers. To him, she still didn't know and his secret was at risk. 

"Jazz..." Danny forced through clenched teeth. The pain was beginning to be even more unbearable if that was possible and now his whole body felt as if it were on fire. He forced his body to curl up as far as he could in futile attempt to get rid of movement and make the pain go away. But nothing worked. Whatever had been in that beam must have been powerful. And bad.

"Danny..." Jazz whispered, her voice choked. She felt so useless, but she didn't know how to help or what to do! She would need Tucker's help for this. Or Dash... They knew more about this than she did.

"Jasmin!" came a familiar voice. Only now was Jazz aware of the foot steps echoing through the tunnel. She turned to the right of her and her eyes widened. Tucker, Dash, and Paulina came running out of the darkness of the tunnel.

"He's hurt! I don't know what to do! Sam did something!" Jazz exclaimed frantically. She watched as Tucker came towards her and put down the weapon he had in his hand. He went down on one knee and looked at Danny curled body.

"Dash, hand me the box I gave you," he ordered, holding an arm up and behind him towards where Dash was standing.

"Alright," Dash murmured and pulled out a small box from a pouch strapped to his waist. "Here." He handed Tucker the white object and Tucker opened the lid. Inside were dozens of small, inch-high bottles. As Paulina comforted Jasmin, Tucker went to work. He took out three of the bottles before putting the box down. Holding the three bottles between the fingers of his left hand, he began to speak to Danny, " Listen. I'm gonna have to check the wound, got it? Don't hit me or anything." Then he turned towards Dash and said, "Hold him down in case his reflexes are better than it looks at the moment. Pain can sometimes blur your senses." Dash nodded and came around to pin Danny down. He forced his hand off the wound and before he had a chance to lash out, grabbed his other arm too.

"Paulina, his legs!" Dash said. Danny's eyes opened a crack, but Tucker was sure he could hardly see a thing if his vision wasn't blurry. Paulina nodded rushed towards where Dash was before pinning down Danny's leg by the knees.

"Guys, keep your grip," Tucker mumbled as he examined the wound. It wasn't deep, but he was surprised at what he saw. Green mixed with the redness of blood. "What the..." he whispered.

"What's wrong?" Jazz asked, frantic still.

"Nothing," Tucker murmured. He also saw that there was something blue there too, shiny. "Okay, I think I know what happened..." He got one of the bottles he'd pulled out and opened it to reveal a syringe and a greenish liquid. "If he would stop moving, this would be easier..." But Tucker went along with what he was doing. He squeezed the top of the syringe and with that action out came about five drops of the green-liquid falling into the wound. Danny howled and squirmed before his movement died down. Now he only panted and made facial gestures of lingering pain.

"Wh-what happened?" Paulina asked, watching as Danny's chest rose and fell quickly with each breath.

"There was blue in his blood, Sam's favorite weapon using a blue toxin that could have destroyed him," Tucker said. "It affects only ghosts, but can cause irritation to humans. I'e been there before so I developed an immunity, which was a good thing, too." He held up a hand and splayed out his green/red/blue blood covered fingers. He went into the pouch strapped to his waist and pulled out some gauze and small wipes and began to clean around the gash. "Anyway," he continued. "I made an antidote a while back when the ghosts finally began to take over completely. Didn't think I'd find any use of it, but I guess I just did."

"What of Danny?" Paulina asked. "Will it work to cure him?"

"It should," Tucker said, nodding and wiping his fingers clean now before beginning to wrap the gauze around Danny's shoulder as best he could. "I'm not so sure how well it will work, though. It could leave behind some minor after effects."

"Like what?" Jazz asked hopefully.

"Not sure," Tucker answered regretfully. "Never got around to finding that out." Jazz nodded feebly to show she understood. "But it would work better if he could just rest for awhile." Then Tucker grabbed one of the other small bottles and opened the lid before shaking it over his open palm to reveal a small capsule. "It's fairly easy to swallow, and it'll help him sleep, hold his head up." Jazz bit her lower lip, but obeyed and moved to pull up Danny under the arms and onto her lap so he was half-sitting up. The boy groaned and his eyes opened a crack. His mind was cloudy and his vision blurry. But he could see that Tucker was reaching forth with something in his hand. His eyes opened wide and only now did he realize what had happened. "Don't worry," Tucker whispered and popped the capsule into his mouth. Jazz lifted his chin and Danny was forced to swallow the small object. He coughed then before everything around him began to get very blurry this time. And then, everything went black. A couple of echoing voices were the last thing he heard. And they weren't even coherent.

"We should take him back to the cavern," Dash said then. Jazz nodded and began to pull Danny up as best she could so Dash to slip his arm around to carry his motionless body when each one of the teens froze. Around Phantom's waist appeared a glowing, white-blue circle of light. Jazz didn't move, only held him as the circle split in two as one circle traveled down to his feet and the other upwards to his head. As it went, though, his clothes began to change drastically. His black and silver-white jumpsuit was changed into the clothes Jazz had seen before on another teenager in a burnt photograph. The clothes of the boy that reminded her so much of Phantom himself. The only thing left was...

Jazz gasped. As is a last statement, Danny's one silver-white hair turned raven-black. He looked human. He was no longer pale at all. And he felt warm in her arms, just like a warm-blooded sleeping human would. But how...?

"He...changed," Paulina gasped. Jazz nodded feebly, still in a state of shock to see that Danny looked like the boy in the picture.

Tucker's brows furrowed. "Danny?" he asked, as if speaking to the boy, but more so to himself. This scene before him had sparked something in his mind. But it was just a spark, nothing more. There was something about this that seemed so familiar, so known. But then again, something had clicked in everyone's mind, leaving them confused and bewildered.

"Let's get him back to the cavern," Dash repeated. He was the first to recover, but even he could not deny the fact that this sparked something in his mind. Even he knew that something was not right here.

"Right," Tucker said softly, his eyes shifting over the sleeping teenager's face, as if searching for something. He nodded, giving up. "Let's hurry.

"Help me pick him up," Dash mumbled. Jazz pulled Danny up as far she could before Dash carried him fully over one broad shoulder. Then the group began to make their way back to the cavern, each thinking their own thoughts. Jazz was left the most confused, reaching into the pouch on her waist and taking the photo into her hands. She dared not reveal it yet, this was something she had to keep to herself. So into the darkness they traveled and laid Danny to rest while they went about their own work.

* * *

Hours later, maybe, he didn't know. All he was aware of were the never-ending visions beings sent sprawling through his mind. Images he wished never to see again. Images, he wished he had never witnessed. Words he wished he had never heard cross neither his nor her lips. The moments when he realized Sam was not his friend but an enemy. The words she'd told him and the events...all of them passed through his mind like a movie. 

_**"My parents or Jazz will find me," Danny said. He knew for a fact that electricity didn't just short out his powers. It had a larger effect. "If I can't stop you, they will."**_

_**Sam chuckled. "Your parents, your sister, and everyone else who ever knew you including Tucker won't even remember your name," she said. Danny looked at her. "Every ghost beneath our control took away every memory of Danny Fenton and Danny Phantom from everyone in the city. All your relatives and friends have forgotten you no matter where they are."**_

Danny tossed and turned onto his other side as the dream progressed. He was well aware of it being a dream, but he hadn't a clue how to stop. It was a strange predicament, but he hadn't a choice in the matter. The images kept coming.

_**She was working for Vlad, and two of his other enemies? That's the lowest of the low. "I'll kill you," Danny snarled. He no longer care for this. If she was telling the truth, then no one would come to help him, no one. She betrayed him, led him into a trap, and worst yet, conspired against him with his own enemies.**_

Now the only other person awake in the cavern came to notice the restless movements Danny was making. And the sounds and murmurs coming his lips as if he were trapped inside a place he wished to escape. Jazz' brows furrowed as she watched him from her spot sitting against the wall with the photo in her hands.

**_Sam stood and turned her back on him, walking away. "How long?" Danny managed to ask. He strained his voice to remain even, angry but casual._**

**_"What?"_**

**_"How long has this been going on behind my back?"_**

**_"Since we met," Sam said. "I'm not a Manson, Danny. I was given to the Mansons as a replacement for their actual daughter who was lost in an accident. My real mother died at the same time the real Sam Manson died. Vlad found me and gave me a purpose for living. To spy on Jack Fenton, befriend his son and daughter. I've been in touch with Vlad ever since you got your ghost powers, before we'd only send occasional letters. But they were for my foster parents, not me."_**

**_"All this talk about trust, all that jazz you were saying, it was all fake," Danny snarled. He couldn't believe it. His best friend since they were kids was a spy. She'd faked through every situation only to report it to Vlad. It was...sickening. He looked up again as Sam began to walk away. "I never expected this from you. You of all people," he said. "So are you just gonna walk away? Forget me? I'll make sure you never forget what you did to me, never." She stopped. "To think," Danny continued. "I thought you were my best friend. To think I actually once loved you."_**

**_Sam gasped quietly. She didn't move. Only stood there, dumbstruck. "You're never going to live this down, Samantha!"_**

At this, Danny's eyes snapped open and he bolted straight up, gasping for breath. Only then did he notice the touch of soft fabric against his bare flesh. Wait a sec, where was his shirt? His hand sub-consciously went for the wound that had been inflicted upon him and he touched rough and scratchy fabric there along with a coldness that made his eyes shift towards it. His wound had been wrapped around, but it was bleeding through. His shirt must have bee removed because of the blood.

Blood.

He was in human form. He took a moment to take things in, but soon his emotions flooding back to him. He ran a hand through his hair and his vision blurred against as he closed his eyes and laid back down onto the fabric of blankets that are his make-shift bed. He lay on his side and lay there for awhile as the emotions finally surfaced all the way, coming as a stinging feeling in his eyes. Then he realized what was happening.

Tears had begun to flow down his cheeks. Sobs escaped his throat. His teeth clenched as he tried to clear his mind of these worthless feelings. This won't solve anything, he reminded himself.

Then he felt a warm hand being laid on his shoulder. His eyes opened and he blinked a couple of times before turning to look up at the face that greeted him. The warm smile and soft aqua-blue eyes.

"Jazz..." he whispered. She nodded once.

* * *

_"Do you think of me?  
__Do you dream of me?  
__I always dream about you..."_

* * *

E/N: The song 'Crawling' (first verse) is owned by Linkin Park and 'How Can I live' (second verse) belongs to Ill Niño.

Oh! I drew a picture for one of the scenes in the story. Here's the link if you wanna see it!

www. deviantart. com /deviation /39080076 /


	8. Chap 8

A/N: 0.o Not many reviews for the last chappie, but oh well. Anywho, I just couldn't help myself! I love this fic!

* * *

**The Art of Integrity**

**Chapter Eight**

**

* * *

**

_"Why would I deny?  
I don't have to lie  
Was there something that I missed?__"_

* * *

Danny sat up again and looked at his older sister. Did...did she remember? He wiped away a couple of tears and brought his knees up to his chest as he watched Jazz take a seat in front of him. Jazz stood and walked over to a table towards her left and got Danny's shirt and some new bandages. "What happened?" he asked quietly. 

Jazz shrugged and walked back, putting the shirt down and beginning to unwrap the bandages. "I don't know for sure. Tucker explained as best he could that Sam's gun fired some sort of toxin that could have destroyed you. It was all pretty strange, to tell you the truth."

He nodded feebly, watching her wrap the wound around again. "Here," Jazz said, now handing him the clothing. Danny put his shirt back on. "The wound..." he whispered, putting his hand back over the bandages when she was done.

"It'll heal," Jazz said.

"No," Danny said, shaking his head. "The wound, it was bleeding, did..."

"We noticed," Jazz said. Not the answer he expected. He was expecting a more curious questions like, "Why do you have different colored blood? Why were you bleeding ectoplasm and red blood? Is that possible? Are you some sort of mutant?" Okay, so the last question was a bit far-fetched, but it would have been a little more informative as opposed to just a 'we noticed' kind of answer. But he wasn't about to give up just yet.

"And the transformation," Danny said then with a little more anxiety showing in his voice than he would have wanted.

"We saw everything," Jazz whispered. "Danny, are you human or are you a ghost? We don't understand. We couldn't come up with any other logical conclusion other than the silly idea of you being-"

"Half-ghost," Danny cut in before she could continue. He lowered his glance and sighed. So she didn't remember after all. He should have guessed.

"Yes," Jazz said, looking at him with puzzled, questioning eyes. Questions, Danny knew, he wouldn't be able to answer completely without having more thrown at him. She didn't understand what was going on. She felt as if...as if she should already know this. As if this conversation shouldn't be happening because it had already happened. She just didn't understand anything at all. The feeling of déjà vu was much too great to ignore. "But how? How is that possible?" she asked then, her curious side getting the best of her controlled one.

"The others," Danny interrupted, ignoring her question for now. He needed to know if any of them _**-**_ even Dash _**-**_ remembered. There was a slight chance one of them might have remembered because of all this. His transformation could have been the key. Not to mention his human form by which Dash and Paulina knew him better. "What did they say?" he continued.

Jazz saw in his eyes an anxiety that she could not relieve. "Nothing," she whispered. "They're all asleep now, but they said nothing of it except that they didn't understand what was wrong. Danny, I don't understand what's going on either." She wanted him to tell what was wrong. To trust her. But she couldn't force him. She knew he was reluctant.

"They don't remember," Danny whispered softly to himself. Jazz didn't hear him, but dared not ask him to repeat his words. She frowned.

"Danny, what happened to you?" she asked. "Why does it feel like...there's something I'm missing, that you're not telling me something?"

"There's nothing to explain," Danny said. "It's my business, nothing you can do about it." He turned his gaze away from her, picking at the bandages around his shoulder. Jazz frowned and bit her lower lip with some hesitation.

"Danny, you can't keep hiding," she said, her voice soft. "I know you're not telling us something and that it's important. I can sense it. That I'm missing something, something I wasn't supposed to lose in the first place. I-"

"Don't understand," Danny said. "Jazz, if you go looking for answers to the wrong questions, you're gonna get hurt. Play with fire you get burned. I know from experience. I'm not hiding, I'm being logical. Nothing I tell you can bring back what you've lost. I'm sorry. I hope you find whatever it is soon. Before things go haywire." Danny stood up and began to walk over towards the mouth of the tunnel, hugging his arms.

He heard Jazz stand and take a step towards him before he heard her voice. "It's not a _**something**_," she said. "It's a _**someone**_." He stopped walking and just stood there. "I know I can't force answer out of you, that would be just as inhumane as Vlad and Sam and Walker are, but, Danny, I need to know. I need to know what it is I'm missing. I feel guilt, okay? I feel so guilty, and I don't even know why. It's a feeling of entrapment, like something is keeping me away from seeing the truth." Danny heard her voice squeak at the end of her sentence and knew she was close to tears. Her voice had begun to break. And it felt as if her guilt was being passed on. " I've been feeling like this for a long time now. Back when I was still sixteen. I told my mother one night that I felt I'd lost something. And believe it or not, Danny, I think it was you." Danny froze. Her voice was shaky, but still coherent. He wanted to know what else she had to say. She sniffled. "Since then I've been searching for whatever it was. It led me away from my friend, made me isolated. Until the ghosts took over. I had to push these feelings aside and focus on helping the H.Y.B.R.I.D.S."

Danny shook his head. "You should have left them aside," he said. "Emotions don't get you anywhere. They're a weakness. They blur your sense of direction and lead you astray."

"You said you learned it from experience, and you said that Sam and you used to be friends and she betrayed you, took away your family." Jazz had never sounded anymore serious. Danny turned to her.

"What are you trying to get at, Jazz?" he asked softly.

"You said it was complicated and I wouldn't understand," Jazz said. "I think...I think I know what you're talking about, Danny."

Danny turned to her now, half-expecting disappointment, and half-hoping she'd figured something out. Maybe remembered something? "What do you mean?" he asked, his voice so soft with shock he hoped she'd heard him. He watched as Jazz reached into the pouch strapped to her waist and pulled out what looked like a photograph. It was burnt, he noticed, and had a type of writing on the back that he couldn't read.

"You're right," Jazz said, looking at the photograph. Danny looked at her face, but her expression only made his face fall. A tear stream down Jazz's pale-peach cheek. "I don't understand. But I do know that ever since you got here, I've been feeling less guilty. I know that...you used to be something more. Something precious. _**Someone**_ precious. And I wish I could remember..." She looked up at him with tear-filled eyes. "But I can't," she whispered. "I can't remember you at all."

This was exactly what he had feared. For her to beat herself up about not remembering. This was why he didn't want to risk telling her. He knew she was feeling ashamed about it. Jazz's sobs echoed quietly and he found himself walking towards her and wrapping his arms around her trembling shoulders. "I didn't want this to happen," he assured her. "This is exactly what I was afraid of."

"Why can't I remember?" she sobbed into his neck.

"I...I don't know..." Danny said. He closed his eyes and sighed. "I really don't know, Jazz."

"Jasmin?" came a weary voice. "Danny?" Danny and Jazz looked towards where the voice was coming from and saw that Paulina had been awakened by all the noise. The other two boys hadn't even stirred. "What's wrong, Jasmin?"

Jazz gave Danny and questioning glance, and the boy shook his head. Jazz sighed and looked at Paulina, wiping away her tears. "Nothing," she said. "Just...talking."

"You're crying," Paulina said.

"I get a little emotional," Jazz said. She began to walk towards where she'd made her own bed. "I'm fine now, though. Time for lights out, anyway."

"If you say so," Paulina said sleepily and yawned. She laid back down and mumbled out a 'good night.'

"Night," Jazz said and laid down herself, falling instantly to sleep.

"Night," Danny whispered. He began to transform back into ghost-form when something caught his eyes. Laying there on the fabric he'd awakened on a piece of burnt photo-paper. Jazz must have dropped it. The boy bent down to pick it up and looked at it. The smiling faces caused him heartache. Jazz, Tucker, him, and Sam.

Sam...

Danny turned it over and saw the writing he'd seen before. But most of it was still a little illegible. But he did notice who's hand-writing it was. It was Sam's. She'd scribbled down a message on the back. A little piece of the words was missing, but he knew what it said anyway.

"Friends forever  
Friends that last  
Friends that no matter what  
Will always let their love pass  
And I pass it on to you."

"You're a great actress..."

* * *

_"Me hace falta este calor  
Inside  
Lo necesito sin tu control  
I'm not fine  
Siento en mis venas ninguna pena  
Without a fear  
That one step took me right there..."_

* * *

E/N: The songs 'All The Right Words' (first verse) and 'Disposed' (second verse) belong to Ill Niño. But the small poem up there belongs to me. 


	9. Chap 9

A/N: Up-date! Oh my gosh, listen fellow reviewers! I've got bad news! The up-dates will come way slower than ever before because of school, homework, and a certain someone who keeps bugging me to get off! I'm not saying any names though. But, here's your chappie!

(me: and guess what? I'm Vice President of Student Council! -cheers-)

* * *

**The Art of Integrity**

**Chapter Nine**

**

* * *

**

_"You think that I don't want to hate you  
I know that I never did like you  
This is not another passing phrase  
But I can see your face _

But when shit will finally break me  
Persistent in trying to get me  
**El fuego que quema adentro  
**Gets to my head..._"_

* * *

"Come on, wake up, Jazz." 

Jazz groaned and slapped away the hand on her shoulder. "Just a little longer..." she whispered and turned onto her other side. There was a soft impatient sigh before she was back to being awakened.

"Jazz!"

Now angry, Jazz bolted straight up and glared daggers at the person before her. "What?.!" she hissed. Danny bit his lower lip and tossed a paper her direction. He quickly stood from his crouched position and went to wake the others. Jazz frowned and her brows furrowed in bewilderment. Bemused, the girl picked up the paper that had gently glided through the air and onto her lap. Frowning further, she unfolded it and began to read. As the words began to become clear to her still-sleepy mind, her eyes widened in realization of what it said. No way!

She brought the paper down and watched as Danny began to awaken Tucker and Dash, his face as serious as ever. When did he even get this letter?

"What's going on?" Paulina's sleepy voice drifting easily through the air.

"We've got trouble," Danny replied. Jazz frowned as she watched him, then got up.

"What kind of trouble?" Tucker asked, getting up as well and beginning to walk towards the table near one side of the table where Valerie used to sit and make plans.

"Superior trouble," Danny said. He walked over to Tucker and leaned against the table. Tucker did so as well. He narrowed his eyes at the outsider.

"What?" he questioned, his voice as sharp as a knife's blade. Before long Jazz had come to Danny's right and Paulina and Dash to either side of Tucker.

"Sammy decided to continue to chase after us," Danny said. "She decided to use bait." Around him, Danny could sense the tension. Jazz's hand slipped the letter onto the table where Danny slid it over towards Tucker and Paulina. Tucker took the note, his eyes never leaving Danny's. Danny stared right back at him. Then the dark-skinned teen shifted his eyes across the words on the piece of paper.

As Tucker read, Paulina and Dash did so as well over his shoulder. Tucker's teeth clenched as his eyes scanned quickly over the letter. His eyes narrowed in almost disbelief. He looked at Danny. Danny's expression showed him nothing.

Tucker looked at Paulina and Dash, who said nothing, before looking back at the half-ghost teen. He sighed. "What are we going to do?" he asked.

Danny didn't respond for a second. He leaned off the table and sighed before crossing his arms. "To tell you the truth, I really don't know," he said. "I've seen the kinds of plans you guys have made. You've tried everything."

"And everything's failed," Dash said sullenly.

"There has to be something we haven't tried," Paulina suggested.

"If only there was some way to figure out where their head quarters _was_, " Dash mused aloud.

"Every time we've done something, they've moved to a new location," Paulina also mused. "There's no way to track them."

"Last time it was right under our very noses in City Hall," Tucker agreed.

"And before that, they were in Amity Park Park."

"Wait, they were in the park?" Danny asked. "I thought you guys were just causing some sort of rebellion."

"There are underground tunnels in that place," Tucker replied.

"There's an opening in the woods," Jazz added. "Apparently Vladimir had some sort of hide-out there or something. We don't know all the details. Valerie kept most of that to herself."

Danny frowned in slight thought. City Hall, the park, the woods...all these places he'd known since he was young to be important to the community. The woods were necessary for school things: hikes, camp-outs, and other nature related things. And City Hall...well, it's City Hall, self-explanatory. And the Park was where you took little kids for some safe play-time, or just to hang out and release some stress in the surroundings.

"They've been in every place we keep over-looking," he finally mumbled.

Jazz rose and eye brow. "Hm?" she asked.

Danny looked up at them and found that they'd all be staring at him throughout his little train of thought. He grinned. "What other places do these tunnels lead to?" he asked.

"Everywhere," Tucker said with a short shrug. "That's why we've been situated here since the whole take-over began to reach Amity Park about two years ago."

There was a sudden rumbling kind of noise that came out of nowhere in the short pause of silence. Everyone's eyes shifted towards the perpetrator. Paulina grinned shakily.

"We shouldn't think on an empty stomach," she said quietly in her thickly accented voice. Danny smiled at the notice of the accent. He hadn't taken the time to notice it before until just now.

"Well, she is right," Jazz agreed. "If we're gonna move today, then we'd best be fit enough to do it."

Danny looked at her out of the corner of his eye, his smile vanishing. She showed no sign of their past conversation. She didn't look troubled or anything. As if nothing had happened.

Tucker sighed. "Fine," he mumbled. He looked at Jazz, who nodded.

Danny watched as Jazz walked around him and towards a corner of the tunnel where she knelt down onto one knee and pulled at a small handle. He hadn't noticed it at all before.

Jazz then swung her legs into the new tunnel opening and dropped inside. Danny squinted his eyes and took a step back, as if to get a better look. "Where does...that lead?" he asked, pointing slightly.

"Casper High," Tucker said. "Basement. For some reason, that place is still as cold as ice inside. Food there's still good."

"That's weird..." Danny mumbled. He then heard echoes coming from inside and Paulina stepped over towards the new opening as well.

"What?" she called.

"I said someone turned off all the torches!" Jazz said. "There's no way to get there without light!"

Tucker seemed to curse beneath his breath and told Dash something. The said boy walked over to one of the torches attacked to the side of the tunnel. He took it down carefully, and then walked towards where Paulina was, and where Jazz was now peeking out of.

Danny's own words filled his mind. _'They've been in every place we keep over-looking...all these places he'd known since he was young to be important to the community...'_

Danny looked up and grinned. "This gives me a great idea..."

* * *

_"Well if I can deceive you  
Then why can't I leave you alone  
Well if everything's painful  
Then why do I wait for  
Your face or the place  
That will give me a trace to you _

But I will **never** find you..."

* * *

E/N: The songs 'Cleansing' (first verse) and 'Numb' (second verse) belong to Ill Niño. 


	10. Chap 10

A/N: Okay, so I totally spaced out on this, but I up-dated now! so yeah!

* * *

**The Art of Integrity**

**Chapter Ten**

**

* * *

**

_"I'm feeling like I don't belong_

_I remember when we spoke back then  
I was cold and insincere..."_

* * *

"What do you mean?" Tucker asked suspiciously. 

Danny looked at him and said seriously, "I'll tell you guys once you're done eating. I'm gonna have to think about it for a bit."

"What? Don't tell me, you don't have to eat either?" Tucker asked.

"Not while I'm a ghost. Human, I'm probably starving," Danny joked. Tucker side-grinned and sighed. Danny's smile vanished as Tucker turned away from him. He looked at the ground, rapped at the table with his white-gloved knuckles, then said, "And, Tuck?"

Tucker looked at him. "What?" he asked.

"Thanks for saving me earlier," Danny replied solemnly. "Dunno what I'd've done without your help."

Tucker nodded. "It's no problem," he said, forcing a grin. "I'm used to these types of chemicals, I know what I'm dealing with."

Danny frowned and his brows furrowed in thought. "I would have guessed the chemicals that harm a ghost would have some sort of side-effect on humans," he remarked, raising an eye brow. "I've seen the effects before. They only attack certain people, but...kids have...suffered." Danny stopped himself from shuddering at a cold memory from his years as a 'marked offender.'

Tucker nodded. "It's true," he agreed. "But I've got an immunity. They don't affect me at all, and the chemicals the ghosts and Superiors are using now don't seem to contain anymore harmful stuff."

"Immunity?" Danny asked. His eyes shifted towards the trap-door where Paulina and Dash and Jazz had all vanished into. No sign of them returning. He looked back at Tucker as the teen began to respond. He nodded.

"Since a long time ago. In fact, three years almost," he replied. "It was pretty strange. I only remember a wisp of what happened."

"Huh?" Danny asked, not sure what the boy was trying to say.

"I remember Sam screaming my name, a suddenly stabbing pain in the back, then nothing. I can also remember the vague image of a...person. Big guy. I can never recall his face, nor anything else. Just a silhouette," Tucker said.

A silhouette. A stab. A scream. All of it added up to a couple of days before Sam betrayed him. And the bug guy must have been Walker. Danny frowned inwardly and said, "Well, there are some things not even I can remember. Starting from the last time I ate." He grinned, and Tucker actually smiled thinly.

But Danny could still see the reluctance of trusting him in his eyes. The boy still thought he had something to do with Valerie's capture, Danny guessed. His face fell, but he made sure Tucker didn't notice.

Danny heard the sounds of echoes coming from within the trap-door, and he smiled. "Looks like they're on their way back," he noticed.

"Yeah," Tucker agreed.

* * *

The H.Y.B.R.I.D.S., Danny noticed only ate so much before they found themselves full. He guessed that they probably didn't eat much because they didn't want to get out of shape. Especially Jazz and Tucker. They had to be quick. They had to be flexible. And they had to be able to get out of tight situations. 

He didn't feel like eating, nor going back into human form, so he just stayed out of their way. But he would catch Tucker glancing at him out of the corner of his eye some times, probably wondering what his mysterious plan was.

Once they were done, it was all down to business and whispering. Now they all sat around in a circle on the ground a piece of paper in front of them. It was a map, Danny realized right away, of every underground tunnel they'd uncovered. It was pretty amazing.

"You guys mapped out every crevice..." he murmured unbelievingly.

"Valerie had other talents," Tucker said. There was a tone of misery in his voice that made Danny's eyes shift towards his face. He could tell the boy was trying to keep his emotions under control.

He tore his eyes from that saddened, sober look and looked at the map again. "These tunnels lead to Casper High?" he asked, pointing at two branches leading off the cavern they were in.

"This one leads to the basement," Jazz announced, pointing at one of the one's he'd singled out. "And this one," she continued, signaling the other, "Leads to the Electrical room."

"But that place is blocked, isn't it?" Dash asked.

"It wasn't until just recently. We figured they found out we were going into the school that way. The basement passage is pretty well hidden, though," Jazz said.

"Enough of this," Tucker snapped. "Just what's your plan, Phantom?" The teen crossed his arms impatiently.

Danny frowned at being called 'Phantom' but said nothing on the matter. Instead he began, "I think they're holding base in the school."

"They?" Paulina questioned.

"Walker, Vlad, and Skulker, even. They wouldn't be in the Ghost Zone, to easy an access. And you said they blocked off one of the entrances. That's gotta be it," he announced, tapping the tunnel on the map that they had said had been blocked off.

"But we don't know for sure," Tucker argued. "We could get in serious trouble if we're caught down there."

"We won't get caught," Danny said, and grinned mischievously as his vivid green eyes flashed. Tucker frowned. No comeback for that...

"Just trust him, Tucker," Jazz said. Tucker looked at her.

"So he's helped you out of some tight situations before, how do we know he's not tricking us into anything?" Tucker continued to argue.

Jazz sighed with exasperation. "I know him, Tucker! He's not going to lead us into a trap!" she shouted.

Everyone stared at her, Danny especially. The others had never heard her shout like that before. But Danny...

Danny began to feel a little...strange. Like that feeling in the pitt of your stomach when you know something bad was gonna happen. He frowned. "Jazz, you don't have to defend me," he said softly, as calmly as possible. "It's okay. Trust is hard to gain, especially when you've lost it once before..." He eyed Tucker out of the corner of his eye. The boy stared incredulously at him.

"How do you..." he started, but then fell silent.

"Just forget it. Can we finish this? We've got to get a move on if we want to keep this as a surprise attack. I know what I'm doing. Vlad is an very predictable person right from when he wakes up in the morning to when he stops to watch a football game," Danny said.

Tucker nodded and they huddled up closer to listen to Danny's plan. But the thought never stopped nagging and gnawing at Tucker's mind and thoughts. Danny, he could tell, had taken quick and silent notice. But the teen never said anything, he merely continued his explanation as Tucker's mind fought against wandering back to the last memory of...friendship he'd had.

* * *

_"Sam! Help!" I shouted. My beret was blown off as the strong gust of wind from the explosion of City Hall, where the Mayor was situated. I will never forget that sight. All around me, people were screaming and pointing as the flames all around engulfed houses, shops, and City hall. _

_But I was also aware of something else: I was wounded, and badly, on my left leg. There was also a small gash on my forehead. It could feel the warm stream of red liquid creep down the side of my face. The searing, white-hot pain in my leg also would not let off. _

_And before me was the only friend I'd ever known: Sam Manson. She just stood there, looking on as the flames burned down a lot of the city if not all of it. She'd been acting strange, secretive, mysterious. And now, it seemed her true colors had begun to show. She turned to me and I couldn't believe my eyes. _

_She out-stretched her arms, signifying the whole town, whose citizens were in a frenzy. A wicked grin was plastered on her face. "You like it?" she asked. "The fire. A beauty, isn't it?"_

_I didn't respond. I couldn't. My throat had sealed itself. A while before I had just gotten out of a tight spot with some ghosts. One of them seemed fairly familiar, but the others I had never seen before. They'd attacked everything: houses, malls, stores, and departments and factories. They destroyed everything in their path. And now that he thought about it, Sam had been missing the whole time. _

_"You were part of this," I say quietly, still trying to comprehend. It doesn't make sense. Why would she do this to all of those who really cared about her? Her parents, her friends? My teeth clenched and I fought to bite my tongue against all the vile things I could tell her. _

_She grins, her smirk broad and proud. "Took you long enough. Three years and a half in the making, and no one noticed that a thing had changed. What are you gonna do, **Tuck**?"_

_"Don't you dare call me Tuck!" I retort, sick to my stomach. _

_She grins, walks over and crouches down. Her smile is replaced with the kind of face you'd expect from a venomous snake. She leaned in towards me and whispered in my ear, "I hope you die, Tucker Allen Foley." _

_The shock is too much. I stare at her, wide-eyed. This is too much to take in all at one time. Too..._

_Much..._

_A sickening grin..._

_A dry chuckle..._

_Then nothing._

* * *

_"I can't place the blame, you gave her pain  
But she lied to me for years..."_

* * *

E/N: The song 'Unframed' belongs to Ill Niño. 

And man! I've had this chappie here for so long already and I just had to finish it! But anywho, here it is! Your chappie! Thank **_Kieineko _**for reminding me about it!

And dudes! I totally recommend you go check out her story 'Runaway Phantom"! It's one of the bests that I have ever read! (it's a TT/DP crossover).


	11. Chap 11

A/N: Up-date!

Here's your next chappie!

* * *

**The Art of Integrity**

**Chapter Eleven**

**

* * *

**

_"Siento el amor  
Siento el dolor  
Siento el amor  
Siento el calor  
Siento el amor  
Siento el dolor..."_

* * *

The whole group jumped down into the tunnels through the trap-door from the cavern. Tucker dropped down first; then Jazz, Paulina, and Dash; Danny brought up the rear. In Tucker's hand was a torch he held up high to make sure everyone could see where they were going. Danny didn't necessarily trust fire all that much, but he figured using his ghost powers may not be a very good idea either. Who knew, if he was right about this **_- _**which he was sure he was **_- _**this place might be wired. And if it was wired, then Vlad would have made sure they **_- _**him, Walker, and probably Skulker **_- _**would know that Danny was among those intruding. He was in ghost form, but he didn't think that would cause much of a difference. He was going to be half-ghost whether in human form or not. 

So along they walked for what seemed an extremely long time. But Danny figured, it was probably just because his mind kept thinking back when he didn't want it to. He couldn't it. There was nothing else to think about other than Sam and Vlad. That only made him feel angry. And as he had figured out before, his anger wasn't exactly the nicest thing around with this group with him. Jazz trusted him, but the others were probably a little bit in a neutral state. Which meant they were just waiting for something to point in either trust or suspicion; Tucker especially.

Danny walked in the back of them, so he would often catch them whispering about something; or Paulina would stare back at him, then quickly turn away when he would notice. He wondered what that was all about?

But he was pretty sure he'd find out on this expedition.

I hope I'm right...Ready or not, here I come.

**0.o.0.o.0.o.0**

_All this time I've been waiting to see him again. I don't why, but every time we come face to face, I wonder: that look in his eye, is that anger at me, or at himself? I** still** don't understand it. I don't understand anything of what's going through his mind. But then again, I'm not sure what **is** going through his mind. _

_Vengeance?_

_No. He used to be the good guy. He **still is** the good guy, even if he wishes not to accept the fact that no matter how hardened he's become, he's still_ _soft. I wonder if even as I write this, he's down there with Jazz and the others planning out some way to over-throw the new system. I still believe he can't do it; no one can. Vlad's become ruthless. He's not the same guy that in a sense saved me. _

_He talks like a madman some times. He doesn't want Danny as a son anymore: he wants him dead. He doesn't care how, he just does. And I'm caught in the middle. A long time ago, he gave me a choice: to let Danny go, or be thrown out. Those weren't his exact words, but I knew it's what he had meant. I said I'd et him go. But though it seems that I too have become cold, I'm not. But to tell you the truth, I don't know. I feel bad for what I did. But another side of me doesn't care either. _

_I can fight him. I can match him. But will I dare to?_

"You will. And you will win." He puts a hand on her shoulder. "Won't you?"

She looks up and straight ahead, not wanting to look back at the man. "I will."

"The soft ones always lose. And you're not soft. I know it. There's only one way to win. And you know very well what it is."

"To be ruthless. The enemy is the enemy. Emotions show weakness. It blurs your sense of logic and throws you off." Her voice lowered to a pained whisper. "I won't make that mistake."

* * *

After a couple of minutes, they came to a ladder instilled into the wall as a bunch of horizontal bars. "It's this way," Tucker mumbled, looking up and around. He placed the torch he still held off into a holder. He grasped the seventh bar up, and brought his foot up to the third one, climbing up. He got to the top, and pushed something off to one side. Afterwards, he went up 'til half his body vanished above. The sounds of boxes being pushed sounded. Then Tucker vanished completely.

From above, all that Danny could see was a round circle of light from the opening. "Coast is clear," came Tucker's call.

"Okay, here we go, then," Paulina mumbled and began to climb up, followed by Dash and Jazz.

Jazz paused at the top. She looked down at Danny. His dimly glowing green eyes blinked at her a couple of times. "What's wrong?" he asked, confused.

"You used to go to this school, huh?" she asked.

Danny blinked again. _That's a strange question... _he thought silently. His brows furrowed. "Yeah," he said slowly. "Why?"

"Just wondering," Jazz said quickly and disappeared onto the surface.

Danny arched an eye brow and followed her up afterwards.

The big, bad wolf is about to meet five bad little pigs...

* * *

_"Why am I feeling so much pressure?  
Am I searching for the answer?  
I'm running out of time  
And I hope that I get what I wanted..."_

* * *

E/N: The songs 'Numb(first verse)' and 'This Time's For Real(second verse)' belong to Ill Niño. 


	12. Chap 12

A/N: FINALLY! AN UP-DATE! And thankies to **_kieineko _**and her mallet of inspiration that helped me to write this chappie! Yes, I'd lost my inspiration to write. :(

But now I'm fixed and am totally psyched! (ze mallet really works XD)

* * *

**The Art of Integrity**

**Chapter Twelve**

**

* * *

**

_"Somebody help me through this nightmare  
I can't control myself  
Somebody wake me from this nightmare  
I can't escape this hell..."_

* * *

"He's here! He's in the vicinity, sir!" 

"Good, call Sagira. Monitor every single one of their movements. But more importantly, make sure they do not leave the school." The stern voice held eloquence in it's words, but still a tone that spelled death if denied. The figure to whom the voice belonged to clasped both hands behind his back as he spoke, walking out of the room. The soldier he'd been talking to saluted and watched, all the while saying, "Yes, sir."

The soldier looked human enough. Her face was paler than usual, her dark skin looking ashened with slight fear and apprehension. She never thought this day would come. She was dressed all in black, the skin-tight jumpsuit making her look like a fifteen year-old. She was really eleven, her getting to be a superior great enough to make her one of the most respected of the group. Her once gentle aqua-green eyes looked swamped and hollow, as if in a hypnotic state. Her short, black, tightly curled hair was cut close to her head, making a fizzy, small afro.

She waited until Vlad was fully gone, then walked over to a door with no knob that was near her on the opposite wall. She typed in a series of numbers onto a keypad. She had designed this security system. Every key analyzed her finger prints with each click. Not to mention the code itself was ten numbers long. Each superior had a different code. It was not an easy system to penetrate.

She was just about to press in the last number when a scream erupted from inside the room. She knew it was a scream even though the voice was muffled. The room was built to be sound proof, so it must have been very loud.

Her hands trembled, she pressed in the last number quickly and ran inside.

"Miss Sagira!" she exclaimed towards the girl sitting there.

Sam sat on the floor on a comforter, hugging her arms, breathing heavily, knees bent, legs beneath her. Her eyes were wide with panic and confusion. Cold sweat lined her brow and made her face feel cold.

_What the hell just happened? What the hell was that..._

"Miss Sagira, are you all right?" asked the superior. Sam turned to her.

"Don't call me that," she snarled, her eyes sharp, her lips pulled into an angry scowl. The girl froze and stood at attention.

"Sam, the H.Y.B.R.I.D.S. have been captured on camera number 56 in section A of the building. The ghost-boy is among them.Vladimir has asked for us to monitor their every movements, and to wake you." The girl slowed down and watched as Sam began to stand. "Do you have any further directions?"

"None, you're dismissed, 25," Sam whispered, still hugging her arms.

"Yes, Miss," said 25, and was about to leave, when Sam called her back.

"And 25," she said. 25 turned to her expectantly. "Report everything he says and does to me immediately. Assemble yourself in position. You know what to do. Get Marked Number 62 in place also. We only have one-shot at this. It's now or never."

"Yes, Miss," said 25, and went on her way, leaving Sam be.

Said girl sighed, her shoulders trembling as the tears flowed down her cheeks. Just a few hours before she'd come in here to get some rest. She never expected to have a dream like the one she had just had. She shook her head, replaying the images. The H.Y.B.R.I.D.S. were on their way. She didn't have time for these silly dreams and worries.

She opened her eyes and dried her tears. But it'd been so real. The way he'd stared at her. It was so real. And the feeling of that hatred towards her burned through her soul like a hot rod through a plastic bag. She could never imagine him hating her, but then again, was that not what he had felt for her ever since both his capture and escape?

Sure, they'd been rivals these three years, but it felt like they'd just been fooling around on each of their sides. Playing hero and playing bad guy. Only now had she taken into consideration whether or not he truly hated her. She shook her head again, wiping the sweat from her brow. She took in a deep breath and brushed down her black jumpsuit. "Okay, Sam, this is the moment you've been waiting for," she murmured, going over to a mirror and tying her hair in a tight, neat pony-tail behind her head. her hair had gotten longer over the years, now reaching past her shoulders, just benetah her shoulder blades. Sam sighed as the green band was put into place and stared at ehr reflection.

They'd been cooped up in a couple of secret rooms in this dumb school for nearly a month now. Things were going on smoothly, actually, no interferences except for a couple of rebellions from the people. Nothing she or the other superiors couldn't handle, of course.

She drew in another breath to calm the nauseating feeling in her stomach. "This is it. Stay true to your word, Sam. Now or never..."

* * *

Danny reached the surface of the basement, immediately the cold reaching his senses. He shivered. Why could he feel the cold? He'd never been able to feel it before... 

Jazz, hugging her arms, looked at him and rose an eye brow. "I thought ghosts had a dimmed sense of touch," she murmured.

"Oops..." came the sheepish reply. Everyone turned to stare at Tucker, who was grinning. "What?" he asked, side-grinning. "I said there might be side-effects tot hat anti-dote, didn't I?" He turned and vanished around a stack of boxes. Danny sighed and let out a quivering breath ebfor elooking around.

Everywhere he looked were boxes filled with many different foods: vegetables, meats, fish-sticks, the works.

"Come on, Danny. We need to get to the first floor," Jazz said. "Else we'll freeze down here."

Danny looked at her and nodded, following the group towards the door of the basement.

**_0.o.0.o.0_**

This place, for some odd reason, gives me a sense of such déjà vu... Not like I haven't been here before. But with the ghost-kid here, it just seemed so familiar...

I turn to look at him. His eyes are still wandering around suspiciously, as if he's expecting this to be a trap for _him. _

Maybe I did doubt him too much. Maybe I should trust him...

_Face it, Tuck, you'll never be able to trust anyone with your life now. After Sam did what she did..._

"Tucker?" a voice came from behind me. Paulina. "Are you okay?" I look at her. A fond, thin smile is all I can come up with.

"Fine..." I whisper. She side-frowns, but nods. But the feeling lingers there. The small, quiet voice at the back of my head that keeps whispering an incoherent message. I ignore it. I take a deep breath and look at them all. Behind me are the stairs that lead to the floor above this one. Level 1. My expression hard, I say, "Okay, we're gonna head onto the first floor. We've never treaded this territory under such circumstances, but we know the way. Casper High has been broken down for awhile, but it's still somewhat intact. We can find our way around easily, but we need to be careful. They may try to separate us, or pick us off one by one. We're here for one reason and_**-**_"

"Two!" The voice interrupts my own and I know exactly who it was. My eyes shift towards the teen hybrid. He stares back at me through glowing green eyes. His side-smirks. "Two reasons." I cock an eye brow at him. He smirk broadens.

"To get Valerie," he starts, then brings his right fist into the palm of his left hand. "And kick some evil butt."

I grin.

* * *

_"In this way are we learning  
Or do we sit here yearning  
For this world to stop turning round  
It's now or never..."_

* * *

E/N: 25, 25, 25, 62! so many numbers instead of names, hey? If anyone can tell who 25 is and who Marked Number 62 is gets to be mentioned in next chappie! And oh, number 25 will click if you re-read the last chapter of 'The Art of Deception'! The songs 'Animal I have Become(first verse)' and 'Now or Never(second verse)' belong to Three Days Grace. 


	13. Chap 13

A/N: Al right! So the reviewers who got the right answers are as follows!

Number 25: ghostlover15

Marked Number 62: Ember518

You guys rock! -thumbs up-

* * *

**The Art of Integrity**

**Chapter Thirteen**

**

* * *

**

_"But this is not how I feel  
And there is nothing for real  
**Though I don't know you**  
I don't even care..."_

* * *

Sam wandered through one of the secret rooms, totally composed now. She reached the one where there were dozens of screens on the wall. There were five columns and five rows of screens all aligned on the wall. Each one shwoed a different hallway of Casper High. The cmeras were instilled within the walls and you could easily miss one should you not be looking for it. 25's genius did come in handy. "How's everything?" she asked the superior sitting in a compuetr chair near her. 

"Everything is fine," said the superior with short-cut brown red hair and glasses atop his nose. "So far everything is going according to plan. They suspect we're in here, but are not sure where. Would you like section B Area 2 as you're base for waiting? Or would you rather the roof?" The boy looked at Sam through the frames of his glasses. Sam watched the forms of ehr past friends/rivals circle out of the basement and onto the first floor. She took a moment to answer, thinking, watching.

Danny looked so intent about something, eyeing every corner of the hall way. "Miss?" asked the boy near her.

"Whichever has more room. And oh, is everyone situated in their positions?" she flipped through the pages in a clipboard on the counter. The boy nodded his head.

"Everyone's ready. But why do you only want ten superiors with you? Should we not take them down quickly?"

"I want to play with him for a little while," Sam announced, tracing her finger down a list of names. Alas, her finger stopped atop the name she wished would vanish from her life. Her eyes half-closed and she smiled a sick smile. "I want to show him something he cannot see otherwise."

The superior stared wide-eyed at her in slight confusion.

Sam glared at him, her smile vanishing and clipboard being slammed onto the counter, startling the boy. "What are you staring at, get to work!" She strutted her way out of the room, other superiors staring on after her. Though she wouldn't show it, butterflies swam nervously through her stomach and a memory-filled haze blurred her vision on such a high sub-conscious level, she could almost picture the various figments of her memory begin to play through her mind. She sighed and walked to her destination. They would be arriving soon, if his will is as great as she thought it was.

_Youa re my enemy. My rival. I will not hold back._

Her feet thudded on as she went. Her own voice echoed hollowly through her mind.

* * *

Danny walked down the hall, looking around. This place gave him the chills. That only told him they were here and watching. 

"Everyone, stay on your toes," Tucker reminded softly. "And don't split up." Theyw alked a couple of hesitant steps forward into the hall, looking as if up to no good.

"Where shall we look?" asked Paulina, taking in her hand the ecto-gun she'd been working hard to perfect in order for her surprsingly still delicate, small hands could grasp the handle better. Tucker and Dash had large hands, and Jazz used a different more slender type of ecto-gun anyway. Guess Paulina was STILL of high maintenance.

"They won't be out in the open, that we can be sure of," Jazz said. "Maybe they have some sort of secret room or something..." As she spoke, her eyes traced the cieling and edges of the walls. If they were here, they would certainly have every hall wired.

"So we'll check in the classrooms and work our way up," Danny suggested. "If I'm right, and I'm sure I am, there's got to be some part of the school blocked off. That's where we'll find the culprits."

"What makes you say that?" asked Tucker, crossing his arms over his chest.

"Because, remember when you said one of the entry ways was blocked out from your list of possible entrances? That's gota be enar where they went, if not holds the secret to it."

"The electrical room is the only place where you can install the elextricity anyway, right?" Dash asked.

"Exactly," Danny replied, not letting Tucker answer. Tucker glanced from face to face, then sighed and shrugged, uncrossing his arms.

"Why not..." he murmured. "But first, I wanna go see something..."

Everyone stared at him bewilderedly. He grinned. "This way," he said and eld them towards their left. The group shared glance, then ran towards the boy, following suit.

Wherever he was leading them it msut be important and/or for the sake of the team.

**_FIVE MINUTES LATER..._**

"Mr. Lancer's room?" Danny questioned, raising an eye brow at the doorless, dusty, seemingly intact room before him.

"I need to look for something," Tucker announced, walking into the room. He passed under the door frame unharmed, as did the otehr three H.Y.B.R.D.S. But when Danny walked into the room, a sudden shock coursed through his veins, bringing him down to one knees at the sudden shooting of pain. "Gack..." he gasped, grasping where the source of the pain was: his left arm. Same palce he'd gotten hit with Sam's stupid beam.

Jazz quickly turned to him, as did the others. Danny winced. "Tuck, I thought you said the cure would work!" she exclaimed, going down onto her knees to help Danny.

"It seemed like it did!" Tucker said frantically. Oh! This far and then this had to happen? This really sucked ass!

"Maybe it's another side-effect," Paulina said, coming towards the boy.

Danny, taking in all their words, shook his head. "No," he said, though it was jsut a pained whisper. "I'm fine, I'm fine..." He gritted his teeth, but at least the pain was decreasing.

She was here. It clicked like an automatic reflex in his mind. She was here and she was waiting. And so was Valerie. He winced again, and began to stand up. Jazz grabbed his arm and helped him. "Are you sure?" she asked softly, eyes worried. Danny nodded and stumbled a bit as he regained his balance. "Don't push yourself too hard," she warned, and elt him go, wlaking with the rest of the group to survey the area.

Danny cleared his throat and walked over to Lancer's desk so see if he could grab a seat real quick. Sighing, his eyes wanderd, him still grasping his arm tightly. Everything was just as he remembered in this place. The seats, desks, Lancer's desk...everything. There were even papers on his desk for future lesson plans and studies. Even the photograph of his sister. And now that Danny looked closer, wasn't that just Lancer in a dress? He took a seat and looked through the papers. Everything seemed to be about shcool stuff. Well, mostly, there were some of what looked like old letters. Danny narrowed his eyes in slight confusion at the first letetr he was reading.

_No way..._

Tucker, meanwhile, walked about the classroom, looking at the back for something. "Come on...it's got to be here..." he murmured. They hardly ever cleaned out this room because Lancer had suddenly just vanished about three years before. The room was then just abandoned. Every teacher was convinced of the rumor that kept passing along through the corridors. None of the students had understood, however. Lancer had just vanished without a trace. Students were convinced he'd gotten tired of his students. But teachers thought it had something to do with the man's sanity. He'd always call out a certain name. A certain name that just would not leave his mind. He'd search through every library in the city thinking it could be a possible author or character in a story. But found nothing. Supposedly, the man had gone insane because of it, and had left the city in hopes of more research and because everyone around him saw him as a madman.

But none of this was revealed directly to the students. To them, he was gone and that was that.

Finally finding what he was looking for, he puleld at the small latch hidden beneath one of the desks. He took out a key from inside his boot and put it into the keyhole under the latch. Twisting it to the side, he tugged at the handle. The small trap-door gave way and opened up. "All right!" he murmured happily, and dug inside for his smot trusted, most valuable- "My PDA! Oh, baby, I missed you!" he hugged the device close to his chest.

Then something caugth his eye, and he frowned. A paper ball thrown onto the floor. He reached for it instantaneously, and straightened it out. On the top-right hand corner was a simple school heading with _his _name on it. He read down. It was a list. A list of, as the paper read, 'Sam's Strange Behavior'. A flash ran through his mind carrying the familiarity that he knew all too well ebcause he'd been having that feeling all through the time since they got there.

_"Your grades, Miss Manson, have been decreasing steadily. Is something wrong?"_

_"I don't know what you're tlaking about."_

_"An explanation, Miss Manson?" Lancer asked, letting ehr see her test paper.._

_"Sorry. Just that there was this whole family thing going on at my hosue last night and I really didn't have time to study at all. I barely finished my homework for today. I had no time for anything else."_

_"I suggest you make time, Miss Manson, or you'll be facing a 'D' on your report card."_

_"I'm sorry," she said._

Tucker blinked, but placed the paper in his pocket. He sure didn't remember THAT ever happening. How weird...

From afar, Paulina cocked an eye brow at him. He brought them in here for a stupid PDA? Sighing, she walked over to what used to be her desk and sat down, fingering the letters scraped into the material of the desk top. She'd etched these letetrs into the desk because she was bored once and just so happened to have found a shank in her desk left behind by another one of the students in previous classes. She traced the letters of her name. Paulina Rubia Sanchez Martinez, the letetrs so intricate with her hand-writing. suddenly, a flash of memroy spun through her head. Something that seemed so familiar, carrying that strange feeling of déjà vu along with it.

_"Sheesh, loser, watch where you're going."_

_"Only passing out paper, Paulina, lighten up."_

_"You bumped me!"_

_She scowled and looked at the girl's desk. "Trying not to forget your name?" she sneered. _

_"Shut the-"_

_"Miss Sanchez, please be quiet." _

_She scowled and glared at the girl. "Go hang out wth Fenton, loser."_

Paulina snapped back to attention, stunned by the memory. Fenton? But that was Jazz's last name...Why would Sam hang with Jazz? And since when did she even talk to Sam? She blinked and stood from her seat.

Jazz paid no mind to the students, instead focused on the classroom around her. The lights were off, obviously, but the fact it was only just getting dark comforted her slightly. She might choose night-time as her best time for theivery, but that didn't mean she didn't fear the dark. She sighed and stopped by a random desk, for some reason drawn to it. The desk was clear, except for what looked like a teeny-tiny hole that looked drill into it almost. On the floor she noticed a dropped pencil. She blinekd at it, then picked it up. To ehr surprise, instead of normal teeth marks, this pencil was dented, having the impression of fingers on it. And jsut as she touched it, a strange sense of déjà vu came over her. She blinked.

_"Ah. A ghost!" she ran to the door of the room, then turned back a little. "You should go now." The white-haired teen only stood there. Then she ran off completely. _

"Ph-phantom..." Jazz whispered, staring at the pencil still, as if it were the source of her confusion.

"Guys," came a smooth tenor voice. Everyone was knocked out of their daze and stared at the boy who'd produced it. Danny stood in frotn of the desk, a page covered with what looked like different routes through the shcool printed onto it. "Lancer knew more than he let on," he said, pointing at the name scribbled onto the paper at the bottom, and the short message.

_Whoever finds this, I hope it will guide through this place to Vlad. I know of his plans, and so I've been sentenced to be put out of the way. I'm leaving the city and state to go to another place where I hope the invasion will not find me. You will have no way of contacting me, but I know of those who might be among your group. Should this fall into the hands of you, Daniel Fenton, I hope you have not gone onto the wrong side. I do not know who you are, but I wish you the best of luck. And also to the others of your group. May everything turn out all right. I hope not to see the end of human-kind as we know it. Fare well._

_-Abraham Joel Lancer_

The group was speechless. Danny's stomach tightened. So this was it. they were here, and here was the map to find her.

_I found her. But can I live up to my own expectations...?_

* * *

_"**My inner voices**  
Are part of my disease  
'Cause it's pushing me to hurt you  
**But killing you is just killing me...**"_

* * *

E/N: Sorry about the use of language back there! XD Well, it is rated T, ain't it? And the little flashy-backs the teens keep having are all mine :D And oh, if anyone can tell me where Tucker's flashy-back came from gets to be mentioned! Anyway... The songs 'All the Right Words(first verse)' and 'Letting Go(second verse)' belong to Ill Niño. 


	14. Chap 14

A/N: So, so, so, so sorry for not up-dating lately! This is still one of my favorite stories to up-date, though, so I hope I'll be able to up-date again this month...

Anyway, congrats to ghostlover15 for getting the correct answer!

* * *

**The Art of Integrity**

**Chapter Fourteen**

* * *

_"Take these memories that are haunting me  
Of a paper man cut into shreds by his own pair of scissors  
He'll never forgive her  
__He'll never forgive her..."_

* * *

"It's a map," Tucker mumbled, still in a slight daze from his flashback. He stared at the paper and it's sketchy contents. The blue paper marked every hallway and room in the school from top to bottom, every floor. Lancer had skills, Tucker had to admit. The old Literature Teacher must have taken an engineering class sometime in college or something. He looked at Danny, who only nodded. 

"Look!" Paulina said, grabbing the map from Danny's hand and pointing at a particular spot. Danny stared at where she was pointing. "There are intercoms placed all over the place." She pointed at several locations on the map, marked a small box that, according to the legend, resembled spots of communication for the Superiors. Paulina frowned, furrowing her eyebrows and looking at the otehrs, confused. "Why would they install intercoms?" Everyone stared at her, just as puzzled. Well, everyone except Danny. He'd already started out the classroom, silent as ever, his silver-white boots echoing softly against the floor.

"Whoa-Hey! Wait up for us!" shouted Jazz and ran after him. Dash, Paulina, and Tucker followed suit.

"What's the hurry, there?" Dash asked, a bit annoyed, grabbing Danny's arm.

"Look on the map," Danny said, pulling away, and stopping a few yards away, leaving behind the four teens to ponder about his answer. Tucker took the map and analyzed it.

"Lancer mapped out...every secret room entrance," Tucker said.

"Apparently, one especially caught his attention, too..." Jazz also added, pointing at one particular spot. It was a doorway, apparently leading into a hallway and then into anotehr larger room underground next to the basement. The doorway was just so happened to be where the Electrical Room was. "The Main Meeting Room. A.K.A., Sam, Vlad, Skulker, and Walker."

"They used one of our caverns underground!" Tucker exclaimed, utterly surprised. "They've been under our noses all along!"

"So it's our territory," Paulina mused. "This is to our advantage!"

"But we can't just walk into it, though!" Dash said.

"You're right, that's why we're going to plan our moves as best we can, right, Phantom?" Tucker agreed, looking up at Danny, who stood but two yards ahead of him. Danny nodded, though the anxiety showed deep in his vivid green eyes.

Then, as if to stroke the flames, "You guys haven't changed a bit," came a voice suddenly. Everyone of them nearly jumped ten feet in the air, huddling together, back-to-back.

The voice was clearly female and clearly smug. But even more obvious, it could only belong to one person. Everyone readied their weapons, eyes shifting around the hall as they backed up into each other to have each other's back and to not leave any obvious openings. Only one person dared speak out.

"Where are you, Samantha?" Danny shouted into the air, his hands already beginning to glow an eerie green, his eyes shifting around the corners of the ceiling, searching for a camera or the like. There had to be some way for her to spot them!

"Oh, don't worry about me, Daniel," Sam said, her voice floating smugly along the suddenly thick air, like slime.

"Who said I was worrying," Danny mumbled; Sam laughed. Danny scowled, his fists tightening.

"To answer your question," Sam said, voice stern now. "I'm closer than you think. Oh, and by the way, look out for the guards, will you? They missed the memo about us wanting you alive. Byyy-yye." There was a soft click, then silence.

"She can see us," Tucker grunted through clenched teeth, voice pinched. Jazz nodded.

"Something tells me she's been able to all along," she added. Her teal eyes searched the surrounding area, searching for stray shadows or some sign of approaching danger. But the darkness made it nearly impossible, even for her dark-trained eyes.

"But how? There aren't any cameras in sight!" Dash wheezed, voice constricted. They went silent, waiting, thinking. Then, a cool air filled the hall, coming from their left. They froze, then took a couple of steps back, slowly dissemling their formation. Chills surveyed their spines, making a couple of them shiver and swallow hard. The H.Y.B.R.I.D.S. members had never felt so _scared_. Fear semed to seize their hearts. They'd never felt like this before: even during the big battles.

"Someone's coming," Paulina squealed near silently, backing up against Jazz. Paulina was trembling, Danny noted. In fact, they all were. All, at least, except for him. The temperature had dropped, the foot steps coming closer. Their breath came in small clouds of white, disappearing just as fast as they'd come.

Danny gulped, a sudden tension filling his body. The air felt so thick he wasn't sure if he was breathing properly, if at all. A drop of sweat rolled down his forhead, leaving a cool trail behind before practically freezing on his brow. He gasped, a wisp of blue air escaping past his lips.

"They're coming. Ghosts. At least ten of them," he mumbled, starting to back up, his hands glowing fiercely. He clenched his teeth, a strange resistance seeming to attack his ecto-energy. He gulped again, unsure of what to do beyond his instincts. "I'll try to hold them off. You guys get lost and find Valerie and Sam!" His voice held a tremble

"No, they're going to need you to fend off whatever she hits us with," Dash said, pushing him back with the others. Danny backed up a step, staring unbelievingly. He blinked.

"Huh?" he asked. Dash mvoed ahead of Danny, stopping a yard or so before them. No one moved.

"I got no one left," Dash started saying; no one spoke, only listened and watch as Dash pulled a couple of random parts from a bag he'd been carrying, slowly but gradually forming a small ecto-gun. Everyone, it seemed, knew what he was talking; all except Danny, who only stood. As Dash worked, he spoke, "Jazz has her parents. Paulina her little sister; her mom. Tucker, his dignity and Valerie. And you...you Phantom..." He stopped, filling a small glass compartment with a dimly glowing blue liquid. Danny waited, lifting his chin a little bit, green eyes flashing and ears listening for what was coming next, expecting. Dash straightened his back, brought his arms down to his sides and sighed deeply. "I don't know what you've got left for you, but I know it's important. Don't know why, but I _know _it's important."

"Dash, you don't have to play hero-" Danny started, but Jazz stopped him, touching his shoulder. Danny stared at her, then turned back to Dash's massive, still football-able body. He slumped his shoulders. "Dash..."

"I can hold them off, but not for long," the boy said, and Danny sighed; he nodded.

"Fine," he mumbled. Dash turned and looked at them, then grinned.

"I'll catch up soon," he said, and cocked the ecto-pistol. The blue liquid glowed fiercely and the gun made a soft "_eeeeee-oooooom_" sound. "But don't hold your breath," he said and winked.

Inaudible shouts began to erupt from in front of Dash and he turned back around to wait for the oncomming challenge as green beings began to appear, their grotesque features hidden by masks and helmets. Ghost-guards. "Well, what are you waiting for?" Dash shouted, getting ready. "Go!"

The shouts grew louder and Dash charged, firing. "Don't forget me, Fenton!" he screamed before the sounds of battle drowned him out.

The group had already started moving though, Tucker in the lead. None of them, except Danny, heard Dash's last sentiment. "This way!" Tucker shouted, but Danny stopped for a quick second, staring back at the battle unbelievingly.

"Phantom!" Tucker shouted, stopping and letting the others pass by him. "MOVE!"

Danny's eyes grew wide, but he obeyed, forcing his legs to run. _Did he just...?_

* * *

_"__This is the first (thing I remember)  
Now it's the last (thing left on my mind)  
Afraid of the dark (do you hear me whisper)  
An empty heart (replaced with paranoia)  
Where do we go (life's temporary)  
After we're gone (like new years resolutions)  
Why is this hard (do you recognize me)  
I know I'm wrong (but I can't help believing)..."_

* * *

E/N: I really tried to make this chapter worth the wait. I'm really sorry, again, for not up-dating but you gotta understand: I wanna spend as much time with my friends as possible. I mean, these are the last few weeks I have left with them. I won't see most any of them next year because just about all of them are going to City Honors. Only Jacky, Steven, and me are going to HMSA. Please understand. I'm real sorry. anyway, first verse is "Forever" by Papa Roach and second verse is "Stockholme Syndrome" by Blink-182 


	15. Chap 15

A/N: I feel so...remembered. As a gift, I'ma give you this chapter. I had to literally read through the last couple of chapters to make sure I got it down write. Anyway, I hope you enjoy this chapter. I dunno if I'ma get the music right, I'm listening to my player now. I needs variety XD

* * *

**The Art of Integrity**

**Chapter Fifteen**

* * *

_"I'll confess this, you're my tragedy  
I want to lay you to rest just as fast as you turned on me  
Gone forever, but left are the memories  
Displays of pleasure, are masked by your misery..."_

* * *

"We lost them," Danny hissed at the team running in front of them he stopped, his boots squealing against the floor softly, as he skidded around to survey the area. The team stopped, each one looking extremely nervous. 

"We left Dash," Paulina said, voice trembling. "They'll kill him." Her bluish-green eyes began to water as she fought to hold back tears. Tucker, being next to her, wrapped his arms around her, letting her cry into his chest. Danny turned to look at them and his expression fell slightly. Tucker had his eyes closed, holding Paulina as the girl trembled, whispering soft, gentle words to her, trying to clam her down.

_I never noticed how much he'd changed..._, Danny thought. _He's so mature now, it's impossible to think it's really Tuck, but...it's him. _His expression lowered even further. So long since he'd talked to his friends as a friend that he hadn't noticed all these changes.

"He's not gonna die," Danny said suddenly, making Tucker's eyes open and his expression to harden. Danny's face remained steel. "If I know him, and I'm sure I know him enough, he's not an easy one to take down. He never has been. Dash, I expect, will be the last to die if anyone does."

Paulina glanced up at him, wiping her eyes. Tucker let her go, staring at Danny also. "For his sake," he began to say, but stopped. Danny frowned and furrowed his eye brows, knowing what Tucker wanted to say. They had been, after all, best friends at one point.

"For his sake, let's win this."

"And we'll do it the old fashioned way," said Jazz's voice then. She'd been silent for so long, Danny had almsot forgotten she was sitll among them. He rose an eye brow at her. She was staring at a solid wall as if it held the key to their winning, the map out-stretched in her hands. She grinned maliciously and turned to them (she'd had her back to them) and turned the map so they could see. "'Secret Doorway No. 3'," she said, pointing. "It would lead us anywhere important, but we'll get to the Electric Room faster if we take this short-cut." She dragged her finger along the thick white line across the map to the other side of the school.

"It should cut off at least five minutes from the time it should take us to get there otherwise," Tucker mused quietly to himself, staring at the wall and walking towards it. "But how do we open it?"

"Does it say on the map?" Danny asked, staring at the wall also. It looked solid enough. It was just a small space, about 2 yards by 2 yards approx. Lockers lined the wall on either side of the "doorway," almost like metaphoric sentinels, guarding, watching.

"Not that I can see," Jazz said sadly, looking at the mapp again.

"Maybe it's like in those old movies." Paulina's voice trembled into the conversation. She finished wiping her eyes with the back of her hands and was now standing netx to Jazz. "Maybe Lancer didn't know exactly where the secret to the doorway was, otherwise it would be on the map, right?"

"Right," Danny and Tucker chorused. Both teens stared at each other and for some reason a feel of deep anguish washed over Danny. "But how are we going to find when he couldn't?"

"Where would you expect it to be in a movie," Paulina sniffled.

"Paulina, I don't think-" Jazz started, but was cut short.

"It's worth a try," Tucker said, giving Jazz a hard look. She knew better than to cross out ideas from a list because of logic. Sometimes how the whole world worked was against all common sense. Anything was worth a shot at this point.

"Checked the lockers," Danny said, walking over to the row to his left. "Maybe there's some swicth we don't see," he added, getting down on one knee, running his hand along the side of the locker.

"This'll take too long..." Jazz remarked. "We would have a better chance of just...getting to the electric room the regular way!"

"You should have thought of that before you told us about this secret doorway, then," Tucker said curtly. "We'll give it a couple minutes and if we don't find out ow to open then-" A soft humming made him stop tlaking. He looked at the source of it: the wall before him. The sound of rock against rock sang quietly as the wall seemed to ascend into the ceiling. He stood and looked over at where Danny was. The boy was staring back just as questioningly; he shrugged. It hadn't been him. So then who-

"Uhm..." Paulina mumbled, staring wide-eyed at the dark hall-way that had been unveiled. Her jaw had fallen unbelievingly as her hand slowly slid out of the locker she had found open. Tucker grinned at her expression and looked at Jazz, giving her a cheesy grin.

"Let's go," Jazz sighed and started walking into the darkness that seemed to swallow all light. The three started to follow, Tucker and Danny the butt of the line. They had all just entered the hallway when the block of wall that had risen fell ten times faster than it had ascended and Jazz's shrill scream filled the tunnel liked a death-scream.

_**"JAZZ!"**_

* * *

"Let us go!" she shouted, struggling against the brawny ghost guard that held her arms behind her. She short dark hair was matted against her forehead from sweat. She'd been struggling with the ghost the msot after all. 

"Where are you tkaing us!" called a male voice. His dark skin seemed to blend in with the red mixture of blood that dripped form the corner of his mouth. He bared his teeth as the ghost twisted his arm behind his back, the ropes leaving burns on his wrists. He shut up.

"You're lucky you caught us off-guard," came yet another male voice. The soft, tenor sound was calm, phenomenally so. He hadn't struggled against the guards, hadn't fought. He only walked whent hey told him to, stopped when they said so, and took the blow when they decided to beat him up a little. He'd figured he'd save his strength for later and tried to kepe his cool, but the fact Jazz had been silent throughout the whole thing made the hairs on the back of his neck stand on end. He couldn't see how she was doing and she made no sounds whatsoever. They'd all been blind-folded, the ghost guards serving as their only guides through the alreayd darkened hall-ways. But something gave him the chills about this whole ordeal. He was pretty sure it wasn't the ghost temperature eitehr. No. This was something more.

"It wasn't luck," said the gruff, smug voice of the guard behind him. "You were just at the wrong place at the wrong time."

"_Dead_ wrong," agreed one of the other ghosts, his pinched, high voice annoying even without smugness. The other two ghosts chuckled and sniggered.

They stopped. Danny froze. He felt movement behind him, then suddenly felt a warm cloud of breath on the side of his face. His teeth clenched and a bead of sweat form on his forehead, freezing from the sudden temperature drop. He could almost feel the smile on that ghost's face.

"We weren't lucky," said the gruff voice once again into Danny's ear, the ghost's warm breath making Danny's ear hot and tingle. He hissed, sending more chills down his spine. "You were just _un_lucky."

A surge of pain made Danny shut his eyes tight beneath the blind-fold and his whole body tense as the ghost yanked his head up by his hair. "Ech...!" Danny groaned, holding back a yelp.

"Now go have some _fun_!" the gruff voice laughed and pushed the teen forward, untieing the blindfold at the same time, causing Danny to fall on his knees before his upper-body followed suit. He managed to keep his head from hitting the cold stone floor.

Slowly, he opened his eyes, one at a time. Ghost guards swarmed aorund him, encircling him. As he swept his green eyes across the crowd, he suddenly caught of one of three figures standing right in front of him. He scowled.

"Sam..."

* * *

_"__All the pain I thought I knew  
All my thoughts lead back to you  
Back to what was never said  
Back and forth inside my head  
I can't handle this confusion  
I'm unable; come and take me away..."_

* * *

E/N: I hope it didn't totally suck! I worked pretty hard on this, putting in as much detail as possible, making that ghost guard with the gruff voice one of my favorites :D!!! In my head I so wanted him to plant one on Danny, but whatever. Please read and review! Wait...no...you just read it. So please review! 


	16. Chap 16

A/N: Okie, promised chapter! As you've guessed, I'm trying to fcheck off this story once and for all! Hmm...you know, depending on the ending I got planned, I might have a...triquel? What do you guys think? XD

* * *

**The Art of Integrity**

**Chapter Sixteen**

* * *

"You stand before me now we stare eye to eye  
Before another second clicks away one of us will die.  
You reach for your metal as I reach for mine  
The sound of bullets flyin' through the air, is followed by a cry

And they're cryin'..."

* * *

The black-suited figure stepped out further towards him, her long black hair held within a pony-tail and her eyes as cold as ever. "Danny," she whispered, voice like ice. She stopped dead center in the circle, aways from Danny as the boy struggled to get loose from the ropes that bound his hands. 

"Sam?" Tucker's voice drifted and Danny looked over at the boy. He struggled more fiercely now. "What's going on, Phantom!?" Tucker shouted, confusion and anxiety clear in his voice.

Danny turned back to Sam. "Let my friends go!" he demanded, getting one wrist free. They needed to teach those ghosts how to tie stronger knots. He flexed his fingers, rubbing around his wrists.

"Can't, sorry," Vlad's voice drifted over the covern floor. Danny looked at him, the ropes falling completely from his hands as he stood.

"Then I'll _make_ you," he spat venomously, taking a step forward. Vlad grimaced..

"No, no you won't," Sam said, seeming to almost protect Vlad by the fact she blocked him form Danny's vision. Danny gave ehr a quetsioning look and Sam only smirked. "Because look who our special guest is!" she said, fake cheer in her voice. Sam swept her arm over to point at a place to her right. The ghosts cleared a path so that two specific ghosts were in view and a light from an above fixture illuminted the couple of green bullies holding up another silhuoette. Shadow drifted over her chocolate brown skin and she drooped over the ghosts' shoulders, looking almost dead.

"V..." Danny stuttered, unable to even speak, his eyes wide. He turned to Sam. "Let her GO!" he screamed, fists squeaking as he tightened them. He had to resist the urge to charge striaght into battle. Sam grinned.

"If you join us..." she whispered tauntingly, shifting her weight onto her left foot. "Then we will."

Danny scowled and looked from Valerie, to his friends, back to Sam, then at the ropes lying in lazy loops on the ground. What could he do? It was between him and his friends' lives. What kind of choice was that?! Who was to say Sam wouldn't send out her hordes of ghost guards out to kill the H.Y.B.R.I.D.S. when he turned his back?

"Unless," Sam added, breaking the deep pause in conversation. Danny looked up, eyes flashing. "You want to risk it all. A fight. You and me...the ghost guards as our only witnesses."

That didn't seem like her. Usually it was her deal or no deal. "A fair fight?" Danny asked, not believing the fact he actually asked that. The last thing he wanted to do was risk his friends!

"As fair as it can get," Sam said, crossing her arms. "Here and now, one fight, win or lose."

"And Vlad and Skulker, there?" Danny asked, motioning with his shoulder at the two figures standing in the circle still, looking smug. They grinned maliciously at him.

"They'll stay out of it," Sam said.

"But if you should lose, I will get a piece of battle," Skulker droned.

"You wish," Danny shot back. He looked back at Sam. "Take the blind folds off," he ordered. Sam rose an eyebrow at him and he pointed at the group of H.Y.B.R.I.D.S. "Take off the ropes, the blindfolds, and let them go. Then we'll fight."

"That's not the deal." It was a flat statement. It was true, that wasn't the deal. The deal was that if he lost, the H.Y.B.R.I.D.S. would probably be killed.

"Let's _**change**_ the deal." Just as flat. He wasn't going to change his mind, thatw as for sure, but the deal at hand was a different story. "You have _me_ already, Samantha, but they have to be let go or else it's a no-go and we fight it out the old fashioned way."

His look was serious, grave. If she were trying to make a joke, she'd probably say he looked "dead" serious. But she knew there was nothing that was gonna change his mind. "Fine," she murmured. She motioned towards the guards holding the other teens and the goons gurnted in reply.

"And Valerie," Danny reminded, causing Sam to visibly grow impatient. "Let her go too."

"Do you really think-" Vlad started, but Sam rose her hand.

"Let her go as well. Take her to her friends."

Skulker sputtered, watching the guards take Valerie through the crowd of ghouls and ghosts. He shouted out, "What is she doing! She's leaving us no guarantee! No..._deposit_."

"She knows what she's doing..." Vlad murmured beneath his breath and Skulker shut up, only watched.

Across the cavern with the H.Y.B.R.I.D.S., Tucker was the first to react. He shook his head and shifted his eyes around the scene, allowing his eyes to become accustomed to the dim lighting. He was met with the image of Sam. At first, all he felt was utter shock. There she was, her eyes as cold as ever. But once the initial shock washed away, he was reminded with everything she'd ever done and anger took over. He took a step forward. She was staring at Danny, but when he shouted, "Sam!", her glance quickly met his. He dodged through the small line of guards before him until he was inside the circle. Sam smiled at him.

"Oh, hey, Tuck," she said, voice smooth, uncaring. Almost as if she knew not of the things she ever done to him.

"I thought I told you never to call me that again," Tucker growled, fists tightening. His eyes narrowed. Sam laughed an evil laugh.

"Take a hike, Tuck, this doesn't concern you anymore." Tucker was about to response but Danny cut him off.

"Go, Tucker," he said nonchalantly. Tucker stared at him, the unbelief clear on his face. "What-" he started, but stopped when Danny gave him a small smile. The kind of smile that held a secret message. A kind of smile that seemed too familiar for comfort.

"Go," he said. "Don't worry about it." Tucker frowned, but nodded.

"But, Phantom," Jazz said, Paulina helping her to walk out towards Tucker. Jazz had her arm around Paulina's shoulders. Danny stared at his older sister and his gaze fell. She had gotten the worst beating than any of them bakc in that tunnel. No wounds were visible, though, so he told himself he didn't need to worry too much. She bruised extremely easily so he figured maybe she wasn't as hurt as she let on.

"It's alright," he said and turned back to Sam. "I'll meet up with you guys later." Sam gave him a pitiful look and Danny just looked back at the others. Tucker turned to look at the guards approaching them with Valerie and he visibly tensed at the sight of her. Cuts and dark bruises lined her pale skin. He took her from the guards' arms and Paulina and Jazz just whispered amongst themselves over her, asking countless times if she could hear them.

Danny stared for a couple of minutes, wishing he could step over and look at Valerie himself, to make sure she was okay. He ehard Tucker say she was still alive, her pulse soft, though.

Paulina tensed, her bakc turned to Danny. The boy gave a suspicious look. Her shoulders trembled, but no sobs escaped. He braced himself.

"You're gonna pay for what you did to her!" Paulina shouted. She pulled a small knife form within her boot. Danny saw the glint of the blade and noticed Sam flinch. Paulina turned and the anger and fire in her eyes surprised Danny and the aura she sent off was almost ghostly.

"Paulina, stop!" Danny shouted, eyes wide.

Sam put up her arms in defense. "We had a deal, Phantom! Make her _**drop**_ the weapon!"

Danny tried approaching Paulina, but the girl threatened to attack. Jazz stood there awkwardly, not knowing what to do; Tucker sat with Valerie in his arms, the girl groggily starting to wake.

"You're not going to hurt another one of my friends!" Paulina screamed, her voice breaking. Danny gulped.

"Daniel, calm your friend, or we will attack!" Vlad shouted menacingly. He was veyr well aware of that. All around the ghosts seemed to prepare themselves, but the utter silence that passed was more intense than the thought of having to fight them all.

"Paulina, listen to me! You guys need to get out of here now! I'll take care of this!" Danny said, trying to keep his voice level. Tears rolled down the girl's cheeks, the short knife held tightly in her hands.

"I'm counting to five, Danny!" Sam shouted, readying herself and the guards around them.

Danny gazed from Sam to Paulina, who still held the knife out. "Paulina!"

"No! Not another friend! Star...Kwan...now Valerie! She's almost _dead_!" Paulina shouted. "They need to be stopped!"

"Five..."

"I'll take care of that!" Danny said.

"What if you can't?!"

"Four..."

"Paulina, just calm down!" Jazz urged, trying to help Tucker pick up Valerie.

"Three..."

"Follow the others, get out of here!" Danny shouted. "Before it's too late!"

"_**Two!**"_

"Paulina, put the knife down..." said a soft, croaky voice. Everyone stopped. Sam cut herself off from saying "one." and Danny switched his attention elsewhere. Paulina blinked and turned around, staring at where Tucker stood, Valerie's arm around his shoulder.

"Valerie..." she whispered.

"I'm fine," Valerie forced out her throat, though the pain was evident on her face. _Still as strong - and **stubborn** - as ever..._ "Put the knife down. Danny'll take care of this..."

"But-"

"Now," Valerie cut her off. Paulina wiped away her tears and started to put the knife back into it's carrying case. Danny had just about sighed with relief when he heard someone whisper, "One..., zero..."

And hell broke loose.

* * *

"What will we do?  
What will we say?  
When it's the end of this game that we play?  
Will we crumble into the dust, my friend?  
Or will we start this game over again..."

* * *

E/N: Lyrics belong to 3 Doors Down.  
Song: "Dangerous Game" 


	17. Chap 17

A/N: Sweet, sweet inspiration, I love you...

* * *

**The Art of Integrity**

**Chapter Seventeen**

* * *

"Tragic visions slowly stole my life  
Tore away everything  
Cheating me out of my time  
I'm the one who loves you  
No matter wrong or right  
And every day I hold you  
I hold you with my inner child..."

* * *

A snap of the fingers and everything seemed to collapse all around them. But it seemed as if Danny was the only one who was even a little bit surprised. He'd seen it coming, but hadn't expected it to actually happen in this fashion. All around him was a whirl of green, black, and gray. Dark colors mixed with the bright: that's how much of a mess it was. From what he was able to tell, there were at least a good 80 ghosts and ghouls in there and only - what? - four H.Y.B.R.I.D.S. and only two of them were really in the condition to fight. And then there was him. But he had his own problems at hand. 

Before he'd even realized it, a blur of black exited his line of vision in his shocked state and was upon him. He fell backwards hard onto the cavern floor, pinned down by his ex-best friend. "And here I was hoping for a fair fight!" he grunted, trying to flip her over or something. She wrapped her hands around his throat and squeezed. She smirked as his expression.

"You know me better that that," she said, her voice hushed.

Danny forced his knee beneath her and she immediately rolled off him, not wanting to get herself hurt before the battle even progressed the slightest bit. Danny got on one knee and rubbed around his neck, wincing prematurely. "I see your death-grip is as…deathly as ever," he remarked sourly.

"Why thank you," Sam said mockingly, pretending to be flattered. She stood up, following his every move as he did so as well. "Your own skills haven't slowed either," she shot back. Danny grinned.

"Heh, thanks," he muttered. They circle each other for a moment. From the corner of his eye, Danny snuck a look to see how the others were doing. Tucker had just flipped over a ghost and Paulina was busy trying to keep her hands clean. He grinned when he saw Jazz helping Valerie to a safe spot, her speed as quick as ever. She was even beating off a couple of goons as she went. _So it had been an act, _he thought.

That was his downfall. Sam had noticed he'd taken his eyes off her own and before he could even blink and look back at her, she noticed his defense falter and took advantage of it. A second before he could react, she was upon him yet again, this time more offensively.

She jerked her fist forward and up into his stomach, putting her other hand on his back so he hadn't a chance to move back. He choked and coughed, the breath knock out of him as he fell forward into her a bit, trying to regain his thoughts. "Damn you," he wheezed and coughed again.

"I love you, too," she whispered and shoved him backward. He stumbled, but regained stability just in time before she round-kicked him. He ducked, one eye closed against the pain in his stomach. Her foot cut through air and he sword the kick was so sharp a couple of hair were sliced off his head. She brought her foot back down and was about to deliver another punch, aiming for Danny's face, but he caught her fist in mid-air. She scowled and tried with her other fist, but with another wave, Danny caught that fist too.

Their eyes never left each other as they were caught in a battle of who's stronger. "You say nothing," she whispered, voice choked.

Danny smiled a shy smile. "I got nothing nice to say, so I'll say nothing at all. Didn't your mom ever teach you manners?"

"Ugh!" Sam grunted in disgusted and pushed herself away from him with all the force she could possibly push away with. Their feet slid, causing small stones littered on the floor to fly an inch or so into the air. Danny crouched down, bringing his open hand onto the floor to stop before he ended up in the crowd of ghouls. Sam stopped herself as well and both ran back at each other.

Danny punched and she blocked it, she kicked and he grabbed her leg. But that didn't stop her form wiping that satisfied smile off his face. She twisted around her body and jumped in the air, twisting around to try to kick him with her other foot. Danny hadn't seen that coming. He ducked sharply again, but was knocked off balance. He stumbled back and had to come down into a crocuh position to not fall.

She dropped on her hands into a handstand before she brought her feet back down to the ground. Danny took advantage of his current crouched position to try to sweep his leg around and knock her to the ground.

If there was actually a Lady Luck somewhere, she was definitely his new savior. Come the first time he tried the leg sweep, Sam jumped out of it but when she came down back to the earth, her foot slipped, her ankle being her downfall - literally. "Ach!" she screamed and came tumbling to the ground - hard.

Danny grabbed her arms before she recovered completely and pinned them above her head. "Hey, Sammy, always knew you had weak ankles," he said, watching her frown.

"Get off me, you b-" He pressed a finger to her lips.

"Those aren't the type of words you should be saying," he said and smirked at her expression. "Listen to me, Sam, call off your ghost whores-"

"Hordes," Sam corrected.

"No, I meant _whore_," Danny said. Sam's jaw fell and Danny chuckled. But his expression turned grim again. "Call them off, Samantha!" he shouted.

"I can't," Sam said. "I promised you'd be dead by tonight, and the H.Y.B.R.I.D.S. too!"

"A deal is a deal, even with a dirty dealer!" Danny shouted. Sam kicked him off and he rolled over into a crouched position. Sam rubebd her ankle, then began to stand.

"Calling me dirty?" she asked and again they were locked in combat.

* * *

Across the cavern, the H.Y.B.R.I.D.S. were having a party of their own. Jazz had gotten Valerie into a safe place and had come back to help her comrades. She'd hidden a porta-portal in her boot and now used it. Tucker was the one who seemed to be the most well prepared so he'd conquered over more ghosts than the rest. But everytime he took one down, another two took its place. "Jazz, a little help!" he exclaimed, ducking as a ghost twice his size (both ways) swung a gigantuan arm at him. "That could have been my head"! he screamed at the ghoul. He ducked again, the ghost trying to knock his lights out as a reply. "Jazz!!!!" 

"Coming, coming!" Jazz shouted and opened a tiny portal next to the ghost, pointing the small pen-shaped device at it. The ghost lifted an eye brow at the small green splotch that seemed to float in the air then howled as he began to be sucked in. "That's almsot fifteen down," Jazz noted. "And there are still so many of them left!"

"Back to buysiness then!" Tucker reminded and Jazz nodded, running to help the others. Tucker pushed aside one of the fallen ghosts and stared out towards where Sam and Danny were fighting. He didn't get to see farther than a single punch to Danny's face when a small voice caught his attention.

"Uncle Tuck," it said, small and shy. Tucker froze and it seemed everything had gone silent, dark, and disappeared but them two. Slowly, he turned, his heart thumping and the drum clear in his ears. She smiled a shy smile. "It's been awhile," she said.

"Cassie..."

* * *

"Hey there Delilah,  
What's it like in New York City?  
I'm a thousand miles away  
but girl tonight you look so pretty,  
Yes you do..."

* * *

E/N: First verse "Serenity" by Godsmack (one of my latest obsessions XD) and second verse "Hey There Delilah" by the Plain White T's, I think. Yeh 8) 


	18. Chap 18

A/N: YAY!

* * *

**The Art of Integrity**

**Chapter Eighteen**

* * *

"Better run run run run run (Holly let me out)  
Better run run run run run (Holly let me out)  
Better run run run run run (Holly let me out)  
Better run run run run run run run (Holly let me out!)"

* * *

_"Tucker?" asked the small voice. Her large, green eyes swept across the room as she opened the door. "Tucker?" she asked again. "Uncle Tuuuuck!" she sang. From somewhere across the room a blur caught her attention as the closet door opened. Before her eyes could catch up with the form's movements, a hand had covered her mouth and a voice whispered in her ear, freezing her in place. "Shh!" it hissed into her ear, making her shiver. _

_"Mm lm nn!" she mumbled into it's hand, trying to struggle and spit in the goon's hand._

_"Eik!" the voice grumbled and let her go, falling to the ground with a thump. "Gross!" The little girl turned around, expression grim and about to deliver a blow to the face with her small fist before she rose an eyebrow at the figure sitting on the floor, wiping his hand on his pants. She smiled and wiped her mouth with her sleeve. "Uncle Tuck!" she exclaimed, running to hug the figure. The older teenager only held her. "Why did you follow me?" he asked, voice soft. Cassie didn't answer, only held him. "Cassie…" he started but soon stiffened as sirens sounded outside._

_He turned to look out the duct tape-covered window, listening intently. "Cassie," he whispered into the child's short hair. She didn't move, only kept her position. Her hold tightened. "Cassie, I want you to hide in the attic and stay in there, got it?"_

_"Why?" she asked, still not letting. She fought to keep from pulling away. She knew that if she dared look at him in the eye, she would start to bawl. She knew what was coming. _

_"Cassie, just listen to me and go hide. Anywhere, the basement, the attic, where they can't find you. Don't make a sound. I want you safe."_

_"And mommy? And Auntie?" Cassie asked, finally pulling away and deciding to just deal with the tears. At the sight of Tucker's expression, her heart began to swell with its own tears. She bit her lip and forced herself to stop crying. "I thought you were going to protect them, you and…the H.Y.B.R.I.D.S. or whoever they are!" _

_"Cassie!" Tucker interrupted and she pushed him away, nearly causing him to fall once more. "I hate you!" she shouted and ran, closing the door behind her as she did. _

_"Cassie!" Tucker shouted and tried to open the door, but something against the door kept him form coming out. "Cassie!" he shouted again, pounding his fist on the door and trying to slam it down with his shoulder. He'd grown strong, but not strong enough. "Let me out, Cas!"_

_"No! You H.Y.B.R.I.D.S. killed my mother!" she shrieked. "You let her die! You were supposed to protect her!" Tears flowed down her face now and she felt so angry. She didn't know why….maybe because it had been Tucker's idea to keep her living with him away from the world. Maybe it was because though she'd been perfectly safe, she hadn't been able to see her mom for a long time. Maybe it was because she was just so confused…_

_She took a deep breath, trying to calm herself, trying to stop her thoughts from spinning, trying to think clearly. But she couldn't. the tears kept coming, and her breathing got more and more ragged and memories played in her mind. She'd cried the day Tucker said it was bets for her to be under his protection so that she didn't get hurt. But there hadn't been enough space in the small cavern underground. Her mom and his mom had to stay aboveground. She hadn't seen her mom for so long….so long…_

_The only reason she was now aboveground was because she'd followed him and the rest of the H.Y.B.R.I.D.S.. She didn't know what was going on so…_

_"Cassie, you need to let me out! Something's going on outside! I need to be with my group! Listen to me, Cas!" Tucker's voice drifted, but Cassie had already made a run for it. He stopped pounding and instead pressed his ear close to the door, listening. "Cassie?" he asked, but he no longer heard her sobs form the outside. "Oh no…" he mumbled, eyes wide, then pulled at the knob harder before looking towards the window. This sued to be his room so he knew exactly how to climb out that window. He'd snuck out so many times before. He ran to it, grabbed a random bat that had been left on the ground as a weapon and banged it hard against the duct taped window. The glassed made a muffled crack and he kept hitting the bat against it 'til he could push it off in a single, large black piece. She pushed through and looked outside into the dark. Shouts and screams were heard as marching sounded. Black-clad warriors made their way into random houses. From somewhere deep into the center of the city his partners were working hard to try to stop them from taking the older children to train into the Superior Force. _

_His eyes swept across the front lawn and the street. His heart skipped a beta when he saw the little girl in a blue-dress run across the street and straight into a mess of running people and struggling kids. "Cassie!" he shouted and stepped out his window, determined to get to her before it was too late….._

_000000000000_

He stared at her now, probably around age twelve, and yet she looked so much older. She'd matured greatly and that black suit only made her look older. Her short-cut hair reminded him of how short Valerie's hair had been before it began to grow back out when she'd barely joined the H.Y.B.R.I.D.S. Her eyes were pale and hollow. It made his stomach churn to see how empty they'd become. Sam had gotten to her before he could have. She took her and turned her into one of her own. Into a Superior.

"It's been awhile," she said to him, voice cold and rough. "Uncle Tuck. I guess it's come down to this one. Fight." Her eyes narrowed, a dagger in her right hand. She stared at it, as if fascinated by it's glint before her eyes moved up to his own.

Tucker shook his head in disbelief. As much as he hated to admit it, he didn't want to fight. He wouldn't. He fought the tears brimming his eyes. "What has she turned you into…." he mused to himself and she frowned.

"What are you talking about, Uncle Tuck?" she asked, taking a forward. He took one back. "It's me, Cassie, your younger cousin. Or don't you remember?" Her tone was innocent now, her voice becoming small. Bringing back memories. But then her expression hardened and she made a lunge for him, aiming for his chest. He ducked out of the way, stumbling, shocked. "Or don't you remember?" she asked again, snarling. "Your darling, little, orphan cousin. Remember me now cuz?"

"That wasn't my fault," he objected, dodging again. He bumped into a ghost and nearly got pummeled. He fell the ground, unsteady on his feet. The same ghost he'd bumped into pulled him up by the arms, holding him up high until his feet hung above the ground a couple of inches. His feet kicked but to no avail, he was helpless. He had hardly a weapon on him seeing as one of the other ghosts had broken the anti-ghost pole and his ecto-gun had been confiscated by the guides that had brought him there. Besides, he'd only survived this long because Jazz had been on his tails whenever she could with that porta-portal. Otherwise he'd be dead by now. Studying martial arts really did work for something.

"Keep telling yourself that," Cassie whispered, breaking through his thoughts and closing in. "Maybe one day I'll believe you."

And for athat single second, he couldn't breathe.

_000000000000_

_I just kept running. Didn't care where I ended up going to. All I did notice was the people running around. There were large trucks and green people with grotesque features on their faces covered by silver helmets floating around. They scared me, trying to grab hold of me and not let go, but I tried not to notice them. I knew exactly what they were. Why they were here.; I'd seen this night coming for the longest time now. I'd heard Jazz and Tucker talking about this night…their plans. But I hadn't prepared myself for the worst-case scenario: for me to be caught within the crowd._

_Children's screams sounded all over my in the darkness. Crying mothers and fathers. Gruff voices shouting orders and people marching into homes knocking down doors, causing destruction until the victims couldn't stand anymore. But the tears in my eyes blurred my direction and I ended up running blinding into someone._

_I scrambled backwards when I hit the ground after hitting the sturdy figure who seemed to hardly flinch. I just sat there then, crying my eyes out, sobbing so much I could hardly breathe. The figure seemed to gasp but I didn't know why….._

_"Cassie?" the voice said, female, obviously. I stopped crying at the familiarity of the voice. I dried my eyes and stared wide-eyed at her. Long black hair in a pony-tail. A black-suit that made her blend in with the night. Violet eyes filled with alert._

_"Sam!" I cried, got up and hugged her. "Sam!" I said again. She held me back, confused._

_"What are you doing here?" she asked. "Where's Tucker?" I noticed her look all around, as if afraid he'd be following me. _

_"He's….not here," I said, voice choked "I ran away form him because… he let my mom get killed...he didn't protect her…he didn't stop them!" I looked at her sorrowfully. "I don't want to be with him…."_

_She looked at me, as if trying to figure out something, then smiled. "Don't worry Cassie," she said, kneeling down and holding me. "I'll protect you and won't let any harm come to you, alright?"_

_"He lied to me…" I whispered. "He never told me my mom died…."_

_"I'll never lie to you, Cas," she said into my ear, so rhythmic it almost seemed to lull me to sleep. "I'll never leave you alone and you'll never need anyone but me…I'm your bets friend, you know…"_

_Before I knew it, I was asleep, those words replaying again and again in my mind. The only thing I remembered before I fell completely asleep were voices in the background, like echoes drifting more and more quiet…_

_"Who's the girl?"_

_"She'll be important….that's all you need to know, Vlad."_

* * *

"The sun goes down  
I feel the light betray me  
The sun goes down  
I feel the light betray me..."

* * *

E/N: Cuz I can D I worked hard on this chappie (especially the timing within the plot. It killed me D:!!!) And oh, the whole exaggeration in the end of the flashbackwith Sam and Cassie...well, yeah, it was necessary for Sam to say that stuff...who can tell me why? I'll give ya a hint: it happens in The Art of Deception also...yeh. bye! 


	19. Chap 19

A/N: YAY!!! Sorry took me so long...I've had this chappie on meh compy for almost...two weeks now, maybe -shrug- lose count. I've been writing a little bit eveyr dya as much as I can to finish it and ehre it is! Still a tad bit shrot, but I really didn't want to get into the enxt scenes jsut yet...the enxt chapter will be...how you say, _shocking_.

* * *

**The Art of Integrity**

**Chapter Nineteen**

* * *

"I've been to hell and back,  
All the snow storms  
And the bathroom stalls that you pulled me out of..."

* * *

Tucker, eyes shut tight, tensed his body as he waited for the deep pain that was sure to come soon but instead he got something else. He was ready to die, ready for the worst and yet all he got was a distant shout and the sound of a metal blade clanking against the rock ground. His eyes snapped open and only now did he realize the cold wash of sweat on his face. A drop rolled down the side of his face and plopped onto his collar bone like a tiny piece of hail. He blinked and stared at his cousin, her hollow eyes as they stared at the knife littered on the ground. Her hand was still in the air, as if willing the dagger back into place. 

He blinked and slowly followed her glance as she turned to look at the perpetrator. "Jazz," he whispered. She stood there, obviously tired form some sort of exhaustion. She wiped her upper lip with the back of her hand and bounced a rock in her right hand. She flashed a smile.

"Not so fast," she breathed, repeating her earlier shout. The rock fell back into her hand and she held it there. The smile vanished and with a quick thrust, she aimed and threw the rock straight at the ghost holding Tucker back. Cassie's eyes quickly trailed the rock's path through the air and she stared as, with a grunt, the ghost came toppling at the sheer force and concentration of momentum on his forehead. Tucker's feet hit the ground and she delivered a blow to the ghost's gut, knocking him down fully. He stared at Jazz and the girl smiled but reached forth, shouting, "Oh no you don't!" as Cassie readied to tackle Tucker. The younger girl stopped in her tracks and glared daggers at the older one.

Jazz jerked her thumb at her chest. "I'm your opponent now," she growled. Cassie snarled in feral challenge and Jazz clenched her teeth tight. What had Sam done to her? Her look….almost resembled a wild animal.

"Jazz, this isn't your fight!" Tucker shouted.

"Yeah, Jazz, it isn't," Cassie agreed stonely. Jazz flicked Tucker a sparing glance.

"You're a sitting duck against her, Tuck, just go help the others!" Jazz shouted. Tucker started to object. "GO! We've lost one man already, we can't afford to lose another!"

Tucker pursed his lips and stared as Cassie awaited his answer. He stared at Jazz who dared not look at him. He nodded.

"Fine," he said, though hesitantly. He never thought this day would come. The day when he'd be faced with Cassie, of all. He guessed his earlier hypothesis had been correct: he couldn't fight her. He took a step back, then vanished into the crowd.

Cassie sighed, almost disappointedly. She stared at Jazz and Jazz stared back. "So it's just you and me," she said menacingly soft. She made a very pitiful look. "Doesn't seem very fair, does it?" she asked.

"Depends on what you mean by fair," Jazz said. She was almost the same height as Cassie, after all. She'd stopped growing when she turned 17 and even then she had only grown a centimeter since 16. Cassie was a tall, lean girl and definitely could pass as a fifteen-year-old if she played her cards right. It was a fair fight, that is, is Cassie had no other weapons on her. Jazz had none.

Cassie smiled. "Our version of fair should be the same," she said, then slowly frowned.

Jazz's chin lowered a centimeter, but her eyes never left the younger girl's.

"Make your move."

* * *

Danny stumbled backwards, hugging his arms to his side. His breathing was ragged and his throat felt raw. Sweat rolled down his forehead and his legs felt like a ton of bricks despite his light composure. He panted.

All the ghosts around him were slowly starting to decrease in number, he was noticing. But it didn't matter to him at the present moment. At that very second, the only thing on his mind was the white-hot pain surging through his body and the images of Sam's fatigued form flying through his mind. With every punch she gave and every kick she aimed she tried to conserve her energy. She may have those mesmerizing eyes, but otherwise she was just human after all. A perfectly trained, hitman-worthy human.

She was starting to breathe hard, though, and her stance rather sluggish and heavy, her shoulders rising and falling quickly. Her jaws never met. Slowly, ever so slowly and purposefully, she brushed a single lock of ebony black hair back into place.

In that single moment that followed, in that next second, Sam did not attack but it seemed that with just that untiring stare she had forced all the breath out of his very lungs.

Danny felt a warm liquid burst from his lips and into the air, glittering there for a millisecond, hovering in his and her vision. The dark blur that had invaded his vision now became apparent to him and Sam before he finally shut his eyes tight. He could just imagine the smirk on that pale face and the glitter in those dull blue orbs. His eyes opened for the amount time a person takes to blink but all the images he took in made up a year. The blurred green and black silhouettes of the fighting ghosts wavering but strikingly clear in the middle of sight was Sam, eyes wide with incomprehension, a shocked expression on her face. Her brows furrowed in confusion and she mouthed out something. A word. A four letter word. A name…

"Vlad…"

He fell to the ground, arms around his midsection. He felt choked and coughed, blood spurting again form his mouth. The metallic taste grew sour on his tongue and his whole body quivered and shook. He tried to force himself to look up, but couldn't break his gaze form the shiny black loafers that seemed to almost mock him with their ghostly green sheen reflected form his eyes. "B….bas...tard…" he wheezed and coughed again. Vlad had hit a dead spot. Sam had been targeting Danny's gut and face more than he'd been able to block. She was fast but obviously Vlad decided she needed help. And to make things worst, the effects of the antidote Tucker had used had somehow managed to fuse his ghost and human half further. Hopefully, just for the moment. He lifted a hand to wipe the red blood form the corner of his mouth but before he could, Vlad decided to kick him aside.

Hard.

His body flew off the floor a couple inches before hitting back down against the cavern floor and its rough surface. He felt the rock rip through his costume and across his flesh, leaving parts of his body raw and aching more than ever. His body trembled.

"Vlad, what are you doing?" Sam asked the broad back of the man. Vlad straightened the black gloves of his right hand, paying no mind to anything. Sam growled and touched his shoulder. "Vlad!" she said, and Vlad turned, hand at the ready. She froze.

"Do not," Vlad stated harshly, eyes flashing. "raise your voice at me, girl. You've been at this for nearly ten minutes now and still you have not defeated him. I trained you better than that." He closed in on her and she backed away, staring frightfully at him. He glared and narrowed his eyes. "I thought I told you to let him go…" he said softly, sinisterly. Sam felt tears begin to swell in her eyes. Vlad had never talked to her like that. Never.

"I did," she managed to say weakly but Vlad didn't hear her. He rose his hand and it seemed everything was frozen when--

"Don't….touch her."

* * *

"Take these memories that are haunting me  
Of a paper man cut into shreds by his own pair of scissors  
He'll never forgive her,  
He'll never forgive her..."

* * *

E/N: First verse: "Weekend Warriors" by Change of Pace. Second verse: "Forever" by Papa Roach 


End file.
